


Higher than Hope

by Lacertae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dave-centric, Digital Art, EriDave in pale is going to happen but slowly, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Gen, M/M, Multiple Pairings, New World, Non-Graphic Violence, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Rare Pairings, fic with art, fighting scenes, their reward was a new world and now they have to cope with stuff, wounded dave
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-01
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 23:11:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 44,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Eventual DaveKat*</p><p>They have won. LE has been defeated.</p><p>They didn't expect Bec Noir to be waiting for the perfect moment to attack.</p><p>They also didn't expect to end up scattered around their new world, separated and lost.</p><p>Dave is hurt fighting Bec Noir, and ends up saved by the unlikeliest duo ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my new project, people. The DaveKat will be slow to come, but I assure you it WILL happen. There will be hints of other pairings too, and there might be a sequel to deal with loose ends and side stories.

 

**Prologue**

\--- **  
**

The swirling portal was bright and green, hovering a few inches from the ground, almost mesmerizing in its simplicity.

There was no ultimate building shaped like the SBURB logo, no floating universe to stare at while feeling like Gods –just a green portal, and yet it was everything they had been fighting for in the last three years.

This was it –their reward, achieved through combined effort and so many sacrifices.

For a moment, they all remained silent, glancing at each other in amazement; they had managed to keep it safe all the while, and now they were free to take a step inside it and finally cease to fight once for all.

The first to get to it was Jake. He carefully stepped around the portal, observing it from every side, squinting slightly, then his face lit up in a satisfied, happy smile, and his eyes searched for Dirk, sharing an unreadable glance with him.

“Well, I’d say something poignant, but I bet none of us truly want to hear my chit-chat,” he cleared his throat then embarrassedly cracked his knuckles before moving away from the portal.

Instead of returning to Dirk’s side, though, he moved to what was left of their opponent’s body, and gingerly bent down, fingers lifting the discarded cloth that had once donned Lord English’s frame.

The green coat was still fluttering between colours on its rim, but they looked washed out, their flashes almost ready to fade away.

Jake observed it for a while, then following a sudden impulse, he flung it above his own shoulders and snuggled into it; the cloth was far too big for his frame, the sleeves flapping large around his much thinner arms, but he didn’t seem to care, simply rolling them up until his hands peeked from inside them.

“You’re not going to bring _that_ into the new universe, are you?” Jane looked slightly appalled at Jake’s bad taste, and she wasn’t the only one –Kanaya wrinkled her nose and politely looked away from the horrid insult to fashion.

Jake looked at her, cheeky smile her only answer, then turned again towards the portal. “See you fair adventurers on the other side,” he called out.

With a curt wave and a tilt of his head, Jake stomped over to the portal and went through it, disappearing in a wavering flash of light.

Jane and Roxy shared a small glance, then looked over at Dirk; his face was carefully blank, and he didn’t return their glances, his head shifting towards the beta group, gaze momentarily stopping on Dave. Their eyes, even if covered by shades, met briefly as they impassively stared at each other.

It lasted only a second, then Dirk offered Dave his fist in a symbolic brofist before turning around and following Jake into the portal, into their new world.

Roxy chuckled, offering Rose a thumbs up, then nudged Jane with her, hand curling around her elbow to tug her along, and Jane went with a small smile, feeling self-conscious as she allowed her best friend to lead her.

Neither turned around as the light washed around them.

Kanaya straightened her back, fingers seeking out Rose’s hand, and when the human turned to look at her, she tilted her head towards the portal. “It might be time to test this new universe and see if we have done a good job with it,” she stated.

Rose’s lips twitched up in a small, warm smile, and nodded, her fingers curling around Kanaya’s hand.

“I suppose you are right,” she replied. Then she turned towards her other friends. “Once we’re on the other side, we will be able to determine what kind of situation we’re in for, as my seer powers don’t quite work in a universe we’re not part of”.

Jade bounced over and hugged her, giggling happily, and Rose hugged her back with one arm before tracing the steps of the Alpha kids.

The couple disappeared into the portal, and Aradia followed them happily, bouncing a bit as her Godtier wings faded back into her body. Sollux seemed to hesitate as she offered him one hand, so she huffed, winked at him and stepped through, her lips mouthing a friendly encouragement for him to follow.

Sollux grimaced, shrugging when Karkat turned to look at him, eyebrows raised.

“I jutht don’t think it’th a good idea to ruthh into thingth,” he muttered, looking at the ground.

Karkat safely decided it would be better not to comment, and he stepped towards the portal, fighting the uneasiness welling up inside him.

Much like Jake had done, he circled the bright portal once, looking at it from every side. It looked pretty legit, but he still wasn’t convinced, his paranoia getting the best of him.

Gamzee had been standing a bit away from the others, body still covered in bloody clothes he hadn’t bothered to change and eyes lost in the distance, but when he noticed Karkat moving, he seemed to blink back to attention. He hesitantly made his way forwards, not noticing that Terezi had done the same until they were both in front of the portal, in front of Karkat.

Dave watched from the side, feeling eerily alone but not allowing the feeling to show on his face, refusing to let himself be dragged in troll matters. His fingers twitched slightly as he fought the urge to step close to the three, but he stood his ground.

Terezi licked her lips and glanced at Karkat, smiling at him –a small, somewhat sad smile– then turned around, sending a bigger grin towards Dave before her tongue rolled out of her mouth, tasting the air around the portal.

It tasted electric and minty.

Her steps didn’t waver as she walked past the other trolls and into the portal.

Gamzee observed her go, eyes sharp, then glanced back at Karkat. His expression, with smudged paint and scratched prominent across his face, looked lost as he slowly, hesitantly, reached out for Karkat with one hand.

Karkat refused to look at him, lips trembling in the effort not to give in and face his wretched moirail, and Gamzee’s hand fell limp.

He followed Terezi with a defeated slump, his clubs abandoned on the ground next to the portal.

When he disappeared within the flash, Karkat’s shoulders fell, and he studiously refused to look at the others still there, though his eyes flickered briefly towards Dave, who closed his eyes behind his shades and refused to let himself think.

John’s lips twitched into a small, confused frown, then he moved towards Karkat, poked him into the arm, and smiled cheekily at him, then at Jade, Dave and Sollux. “Come on, it’s getting boring here, let’s have a look at our reward!”

He playfully shoved Karkat away from the portal and promptly went through.

With only four of them left, Dave finally decided to move, and casually stepped towards the portal, watching as Karkat stared at him, waiting.

“Girls first,” Dave stated, pointing at the portal.

Karkat grunted but moved away, freeing the path for Jade as she moved closer. “Yes, what the moron said,” he muttered, looking to the side.

“I was actually talking about you, Karkat,” Dave commented.

The troll growled at him, eyes narrowed in anger, and Jade giggled at them, dog ears twitching on top of her head.

“Shove it where it hurts,” Karkat muttered, glaring at Sollux and daring him to comment.

Still the comment seemed to have a positive effect on him, and the tense air seemed to dissipate.

Jade stepped towards the portal, grinning.

Bec Noir chose that moment to attack.

Red tendrils flared to life everywhere around them, surrounding the four and separating them from the portal, and Dave was the first to locate where the attack was coming from, the incoming figure hovering above them.

Bec Noir wasn’t stupid. He could recognise a lost battle when he faced one, and going against Lord English would obviously result into a loss on his part. So, he’d kept his profile low, waiting for someone else to get rid of the threat, completely forgotten by the kids he hated, but now that their main opponent had bitten the dust, the carapace had reappeared to exact his revenge.

He’d waited a bit too long, allowing a few of the kids to go through that portal, but he wasn’t in a hurry –he would get rid of the ones still there, then chase the remaining ones in the new universe, just like he’d done before.

And then he would enjoy destroying that, too.

Sword ready in hand, Bec Noir rushed downwards, directing the red miles to surround his enemies to prevent their escape.

With a small gasp, Jade lifted both hands and pointed them at some of the red tendrils, but Dave grabbed her wrist and tugged her harshly away from them.

“Don’t touch those,” he warned, fingers tightly clenched around the handle of his sword. “It seems we’ve got one last unfinished business left before we can go”.

Sollux stumbled towards them, momentarily forgetting that he still didn’t have any psionic power left, and Karkat placed himself in front of his friend, sickles ready to strike.

“Can you get to the portal?” he called out, throat underlining his words with a low growl.

“I am… no, not at thith point,” Sollux glanced back at the red strands keeping the portal blocked, and looked down at his hands, feeling utterly useless.

Part of him suddenly missed his psionics, even with all the hassle and death cries that came with them.

“Don’t you dare fucking die on me, grubmunching idiot, or I’m not leaving this shitty place until I have your rotten soul following me,” Karkat called out, then shoved one of his sickles into Sollux’s hands.

“KK, I–”

“Shut up and fucking protect your useless self”.

Sollux’s lips turned into a thin line but he nodded. Sickles weren’t his weapon of choice –to be honest, he didn’t have a weapon of choice, he’d only ever used his own powers to fight– but he would make do.

Dave sprung to action the moment Bec Noir was at a striking distance, their swords clashing together once, then twice before the human had to back away, leaving enough space for Karkat to join in, sickles flashing towards the carapace’s neck.

Bec Noir blocked the attack and Karkat had to jump to avoid an incoming wave of red, momentarily busy trying not to have the red miles touch any part of his body.

Dave attacked again, eyes narrowed as he tried to read his opponent’s moves as they fought, and saw Jade cover his back with her powers, opening smaller portals and sending the red miles flying away.

Wave after wave of red zoomed in on them, attacking from every side, and as they were tired from their fight with LE already, their movements lacked energy.

Jade shrunk an incoming strand to the size of a sewing thread, then gasped out in pain when it rushed past her, barely grazing her arm and leaving behind a red trail on her skin.

“I can’t shrink them or I won’t be able to control them!” she cried out, trying to concentrate.

To work her powers she had to take time, but the miles were not allowing her much of that.

Dave flicked one finger back, focusing so that he could send some of his power ticking towards the wall of red hovering around them, but Bec Noir pressed on, disrupting his concentration and making him stumble backwards.

Karkat jumped forwards again, and this time Sollux followed him, brandishing the sickle unsteadily as they both forced Bec Noir away from Dave.

He didn’t waste time thanking them and turned around, arms flashing to his sides, calling up his time-tables to aid himself, and spun them, sending a wave of time ticking towards the red waves.

The incoming streams of red faltered and seemed to slow down, and he gritted his teeth, forcing more power out.

Jade smiled at him, and closed her eyes.

Window-sized portals opened up around the red miles, teleporting the as far from them as Jade could make them go.

Dave flung himself back at Bec Noir, blocking an attack meant for Sollux and engaging the carapace to a one-on-one fight again.

“Go, now!” he called out.

Sollux hesitated –he didn’t want to leave them there with no backup, not if that meant it would be just them against that creature– but he reasoned that he would just get himself hurt, so he dashed towards the portal, only turning for a moment to launch the sickle back at Karkat.

“Get the fuck into thith thing alive, or I’ll be the one theeking your loud thoulth back from hell!” he yelled.

Then he was gone, the portal flashing to signal he’d been taken to the next universe.

Karkat straightened his back, eyes set on the enemy.

“How the fuck do we stop that shit from coming with us,” he asked.

Jade ran to his side, panting slightly, and they watched for a moment as Dave held his own against Bec Noir.

“I think…” Jade’s eyes narrowed. “We need to take away his ring. Without it, he’ll go back to his normal self. Then, we can take the ring with us, since it doesn’t work on humans… or trolls,” she added hastily. “And I think I can…” she made a complicated motion with her hands, and scrambled for words. “I can bring the portal itself with us,” she ended up saying. “So he won’t follow us either”.

Karkat groaned. “What a fucking pain in the ass, it’s just my luck we’re the only ones left to fend that fucker off”.

“Come on, if we compare him to Lord English, he’s nothing but a wimpy dog!” Jade tried to reassure him, smiling, but her smile’s edge was tense.

They were tired, and they needed a plan.

“Dave!” she called out.

Dave’s shoulder twitched, but otherwise he didn’t show any outer sign that he’d heard her, still keeping on slashing at Bec Noir.

“Bring him down!” she called out again.

While Dave could float thanks to his Godtier powers, and Jade herself could do that too, Karkat couldn’t, and they needed all the advantages they could manage.

Dave spun in the air and flew around Bec Noir, hands dropping his sword for a moment to call forth his time-tables. He only had a split second and it was rather dangerous, but he needed all the power he could.

A giant gear surrounded Bec Noir, slowing him down, then forcing him into a standstill. Dave felt the strain in the back of his mind, the small waver that came with using too much of his power, but ignored it, and pushed his body forwards, hitting Bec Noir and sending him plummeting down.

The spell broke while the carapace was still falling, and he halted himself, but had no time to go back up because Karkat was on him instantly, and a few seconds later, Dave joined him again.

Jade concentrated her attention to his finger, but the enemy was moving too fast, swinging his arm around, and she had no way to lock on the small ring and use her powers to get it away from him.

Besides, as an object with power internal to the game, she was probably not supposed to be able to use her space powers like that.

Dave and Karkat shared a look, and both attacked at the same time from two sides, forcing Bec Noir to fly closer to Jade, who used her powers to levitate a rock, resize it, and send it flying against his head.

The rock hit the side where his arm was missing, leaving behind a trail of blood pooling down, but that only seemed to make Bec Noir even angrier at them, his pacific instincts towards her –remnant of Bec’s influence inside him– vanishing in a strong wave of anger.

He charged towards her, but she opened a portal right in front of his face, sending him straight into Dave’s path.

Dave swung his sword, but Bec Noir avoided it, although only by a fraction of an inch, then flew towards Karkat, snarling in anger.

It was clear his plan to kill them was going to take more time than he wanted to waste, and Bec Noir glanced towards the portal, wondering if it wouldn’t be more fun to go there first and bring some destruction for them to find when they followed him, instead.

He headed towards the portal, flying past the three pests despite their attempts to block him, and dove towards the green spot, grinning to himself–

Jade hastily opened a window and teleported him away, once again towards Dave and Karkat, but Bec Noir quickly shoved them away, returning his attention to his new goal.

Jade let out a small squeal and once again shoved him away, but her fatigue was getting stronger, and it took her a couple more seconds to make a window big enough, so he got too close to the portal, almost getting inside.

“This isn’t going to work,” Karkat landed at her side, hand hovering on her shoulder but not touching her. “He’s going to get past us if we don’t take off that fucking ring”.

Dave landed at Karkat’s other side, panting slightly, and Karkat glared at him. “Get yourself back together, we don’t need your corpse, Strider,” he grunted.

He sprinted towards the enemy, effectively keeping him busy for a moment, while Dave tried to get his breath back.

“He’s right, Jade, this isn’t going to work. Can you teleport _me_ in front of the portal?” Dave looked at Bec Noir, then at the portal, then glanced at Jade.

She swallowed and bit on her lower lip, ears twitching on top of her head. “Yes. Why?”

“If you teleport him, he’s going to know and he can evade my attack. But if you teleport me, he won’t have enough time to get out of the way, and I can try to land a blow on that doghead”.

Jade didn’t look convinced, but Dave gripped his sword tightly in his hand and nudged her arm.

“Come on, we have to try, and this isn’t going anywhere,” he coaxed her, voice slightly warmer. “It’s not like you can keep on using your windows forever either”.

With a deep sigh, she nodded. “Ok, ok, I can do that,” she nodded. “Karkat! Stand back!”

Dave flash-stepped towards the enemy, joining back the fight while Karkat slowed down, moving back towards Jade, who quickly explained what they were about to do.

He nodded tersely, and sprung back into action, joining the other teen once more.

Bec Noir slashed at them over and over, growing angrier the more they kept avoiding his blows; still, they were growing wearier, while he’d been fully rested and itching for a good fight, so he knew he would win in the end.

With one shove, both Karkat and Dave fell away from him long enough that he could fly towards the portal again. The girl – _loved master_ , part of him tried to say, but he stomped viciously on it– lifted her hands, but he didn’t see a window appear in front of him, so Bec Noir smirked, flying faster towards the portal.

Jade concentrated; this would be their last chance, because after that, she wasn’t sure she’d have enough power to keep opening portals, and the red miles would also come back at some point.

She needed to trust Dave.

She allowed her powers to build up inside her, eyes focused on Bec Noir, and how close he was getting to the portal.

Closer…

Closer still…

_Now._

With a small bark slipping past her lips, Jade snapped her arms apart.

Dave felt space shift around him, the weird feeling of being shoved somewhere else, and in the blink of an eye he found himself standing between Bec Noir and the portal.

He could feel the soft pull from behind him, the heat coming from the portal, attracting him, but he ignored it.

The window closed and he had a split second to react to Bec Noir flying full speed towards him.

Gritting his teeth, he arched his arms above his head and slashed.

Bec Noir growled at the sudden appearance of the red kid right in front of him and reacted quickly, slamming his sword forwards.

The delightful feeling of metal digging into skin made him snarl in joy, shoving the hilt of his sword forwards even more, the pained gasp coming from the kid’s lips a beautiful sound.

He hadn’t expected the sudden, sharp pain of metal cutting through his hand from the side, though, Dave’s sword penetrating through two of his fingers, cutting them neatly away from him.

He hissed and retreated his arm in a flash, but even then he could feel something was wrong–

He was growing _smaller_.

The arm he’d long since lost to the ring’s power regrew anew, and he felt his strength diminish instantly, the wings and canine features morphing back into his old body, one he hadn’t felt his own since he’d put the ring on.

Bec Noir, returned to being simply Jack Noir, stared in hatred at his finger falling away from him, together with the ring still on it.

He made an attempt to grab it, hand slippery with blood, but the finger disappeared before he could reach it, and it didn’t take much to realise who’d made a grab at it before he could.

He stumbled backwards, wary and knowing exactly well where he stood in terms of strength, and the only thing that left him enough satisfaction was to stare at the gasping wretch that was the red kid panting for air in front of the portal.

With the attention of the remaining two focused on the wounded red one, Jack Noir swallowed his fury and his useless resurfaced weakness, turned around and sprinted away.

Dave had known that he was opening himself up to be attacked –there was no other way to get the sword to cut the right way unless he sacrificed some of his defence– but he hadn’t expected the pain flaring up his side.

It burnt –it took away his breath and turned his lungs into fire as pain spread quickly from his lower side where the sword had penetrated deep into his body.

He stumbled and let go of his sword, fingers lax as he couldn’t apply any strength to them, but not before he saw he’d managed to cut off the finger with the ring attached to it.

Ok, that was fine, then.

Tears pooled into his eyes without his will, pain washing through him as he landed on his feet, and he doubled over and coughed, bile making its way up his throat and out from his lips, tinged red with his blood.

He was choking, and it _hurt_ –and he hadn’t _expected_ it to hurt like that.

He tilted his head to the side, glancing at Jade and Karkat, sight swimming and turning blurry, and saw Jade clutch both hands to her chest, her lips moving soundlessly, but he couldn’t hear her cries above the sound of his blood rushing through his ears.

Everything hurt, and the world dulled over, the sounds coming from afar.

Karkat was running towards him, arm stretched, and Dave didn’t understand why until he realised he was falling backwards, attracted by the portal’s magnetic attraction.

No time _left_ , amusing for someone who was Knight of Time. Dave’s eyes widened behind his shades.

For a split second he was hit with a strong wave of fear –he couldn’t explain why, but he was suddenly frightened. He gasped and winced, forcing his body to move, but it wouldn’t respond. He didn’t want to go, not now, he had to–

He had to tell Karkat–

He swallowed –and even that small twitch hurt– and locked eyes with the troll, reading the panic and the anger and the pain in his face and being unable to do anything about it, because in the end it was also his fault… for not confronting him, for not telling… _things_ sooner, for getting _hurt_ , and now–

His lips parted to say something, _anything,_ but he couldn’t _breathe_ …

Karkat was screaming

Jade was also running towards him

Dave closed his eyes and fell through the portal.

Light flashed behind his closed eyelids, then the feeling of being stretched, the pain in his side flaring up, then darkness.

Dave welcomed it.


	2. Chapter 01

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter is out! From this chapter onwards, the parts between ≈~~≈ are meant to be flashbacks, just so you know!

**Chapter 01**

**≈~~≈**

The respiteblock was empty when Karkat entered.

He had expected Dave to be already there, so to find nobody around made him slightly upset, but he tried to hide his disappointment by clutching the book tighter against his chest.

He should have known it –the fucking human would never keep his side of the unspoken promise. Strider didn’t care shit about Karkat’s books, nor about spending some time ( _with him_ ) being acculturated on a higher society and its romance.

Karkat shouldn’t have felt so cheated, and yet a part of him _was_ sour.

His nails dug into the cover of his book and he turned around; there was no reason to stay in this empty fucking block if there was nobody else around. There was no reason to look even more like an embarrassingly pitiful wreck by hanging around to wait for someone who wouldn’t come.

There was–

“Oh, for the love of God, Vantas, get your ass in here and start your useless yapping or I swear I’ll _leave_ ”.

Startled out of his anger, Karkat spun around; there was a messy pile of shitty blankets in the corner, and one side was prodded open, revealing a small, constricting passage from which Dave’s head was poking out.

Karkat blinked.

“What the fuck is that supposed to be,” he grunted out. His bloodpusher twisted weirdly in his chest, his disappointment bleeding away into a different sort of feeling.

“What does this look like? It’s a blanket fort, duh”.

“It looks like shit to me,” he growled out, refusing to move any closer.

“Oh, come on, Karkat, don’t bitch at my fort. I spent the last hour on this beautiful concept of ironic hideout. Come on, I’ll even put out a note for you if you do. ‘No trespassers allowed, except Vantas’ ass’, is that ok?” Karkat couldn’t see Dave’s eyes behind his shades, but he saw his eyebrows peeking from above them, sign that the human was wiggling them.

Abhorrent sad excuse for a pitiful life form.

“I refuse to get into that contraption until I know what’s inside,” he resisted.

“Oh, for the love of–” Dave shifted out, pulling the top blanket to the side to reveal a small compartment inside, with pillows and even more blankets. “Here, look, there’s nothing that is going to come and bite your ass in there, unless you _want_ it,” Dave smirked, pointing at the fort. “This way even if somebody comes around they won’t see us. That means I’m willingly selling my soul to your storytelling abilities for the next couple of hours, no catch. That is one serious fucking sacrifice here, man. You not going to bail out on me when _you_ were the one so bent on teaching me troll romance, right?”

“Fuck you Strider, I’m only doing that because I want you to treat Terezi like she deserves to be treated, not to do you a favour,” he grunted out.

Still, he stomped towards the blanket pile and wriggled his way inside.

It was almost a tight fit, but there was enough space to be comfortable without squeezing together with the asshole, and there was even a good illumination inside, because Dave had been useful and fetched a lamp. Not to mention a bottle of water. Huh. Ok, he’d thought about everything.

“I told you that it’s not like this between me n’ Rezi, but it’s like you never fucking listen,” Dave complained, following him inside.

Dave hesitated for a moment, eyeing Karkat like he was debating something, then he moved to sit on the opposite side of the troll, keeping his distance.

Karkat grumbled something about hoping Dave wouldn’t fall asleep, but didn’t comment on the placement, and instead opened the book. The cover creaked as he did, sign that the copy was mint fresh, and he flipped through the first few empty pages until he found the prologue.

“Now shut the fuck up and let me educate you,” he stated, clearing his throat. “If you have any questions, keep those until I finish a chapter, at the very least”.

Dave nodded and wriggled a bit, obviously trying to get comfortable. “Shoot, oh great romance master,” he invited with a smile.

Karkat hid a pout and started reading.

“The hidden cat-beast was gutting its prey in the luminescent glow of the pale twin moons…”

** ≈~~≈ **

He dreamed.

The dreams had no consistence, and Dave moved from one to the other too swiftly to make sense of them all.

There was a dark shadow looming over him – _Lord English, back to life to hurt, but no, he was dead, gone, removed from every reality, locked away_ – and Dave wanted to run, but his body felt sluggish, poisoned and drowning in goo.

He forced himself to run faster, away from the danger, he had _no sword_ , why couldn’t he _open_ his eyes, he had to–

_Karkat_

Green and light burned his sight as he peered from behind closed eyelids, tears running down his cheeks, cold against his burning skin.

He lashed out, fear clawing at his insides, and there was darkness again.

He was tired. His body was heavy. Shadows everywhere, reaching towards him. Touching him.

Cold.

He winced, trying to curl more upon himself, but he was

_unable_

to

_move._

Panic filled him, but with that came another wave of fatigue, and he crumbled, floating into the invisible goo, pain everywhere.

There were voices around him, voices that spoke no language he could understand, and he tried to answer, only to find his lips glued together, swollen and dry.

He screamed into his head, nails digging into the skin of his face, but that feeling was dulled over, and Dave had a second to puzzle over it in his panic before the world spun wildly around him, bleeding between darkness and bright colours.

Everything hurt –his body was burning, and again he was drowning into a sea of lava, hot and searing on his skin, tearing and melting it–

He screamed again, again and again, flailing limbs against the pain…

Then darkness again.

He resurfaced from the nothingness of his mind once more, startled away from a hazy memory of ticking clocks and turning gears and the silence surrounding him was more jarring than the noise from before.

The silence was thick, and Dave at first could hear nothing except the dull thump of his own heart. His brain felt slow and drowsy, but his attention was attracted instantly by the sound of water hitting some hard surface.

The noise wasn’t coming from the inside of his head.

His throat was parched, and he couldn’t open his eyes. Something soft was underneath him, but he had no strength and no will to move.

The same pain that had accompanied him in his feverish nightmares was still present, and the thread connecting reality to dream had him confused, the confines blurred. Was he dreaming? Was he awake?

Where was–

There were voices again, and he still couldn’t understand them. He wanted to speak up, but as he thought that, he fell unconscious once more.

The pain was washed away, diluted in nightmares and darkness.

***

The next time Dave woke up, he was actually aware of the change, his brain clear enough to notice the shift.

He licked his lips, feeling them parched and swollen under his lips, but that didn’t do much good, as his mouth was just as dry.

He swallowed, but his throat hurt at the movement.

 _Fuck_. He felt like a wreck.

There was something covering his face –something soft pressing down over his eyes, so that Dave couldn’t open them.

He was thirsty –his whole body felt heavy and dry, but the strong thirst was what had woken him up, snatching his mind from shapeless dreams.

The room around him was still silent, but he was now awake and confused questions filled his brain, wanting answers. Where was he? What had happened? He could remember pain, and blood and a green flash…

Still, the emptiness of his stomach and the thirst clutching at his insides were overriding all the questions.

Dave breathed slowly, trying to calm himself, but to no avail; the need to drink was more than just a simple desire –it was a deeply rooted, searing call, and the more he thought about water the more his body worked itself up with want.

With a soft sigh, he tried moving his body, and much to his surprise, it complied to his will. He felt heavy, and lethargic, but he could move, and that filled him with relief. He wriggled the fingers of his hands, then his toes, a surge of reassurance when he felt all of them respond, and slowly, one inch at a time, he forced his body up until he shifted to a sitting position.

The strain caused a sudden pain to flare up from his side, momentarily taking his breath away as a strangled moan was ripped out from his lips. “ _Hnnng_ –”

Time ticked on in the back of his mind, signing every second passing by as he shook, mouth open wide and lungs constricting, until the pain receded enough for him to breathe again.

He gasped and air filled his lungs again, and that hurt, too, and his side pulsated with pain, but Dave refused to give in to it, keeping himself up; if he let his body slide back down, he was afraid he wouldn’t have the energy to get up again.

To try and keep his attention away from the pain, he slid his right hand over the surface he had been resting on. It was smooth but coarse, a bit like the inside of a coat, and under that he could feel something bumpy and hard, like wood.

It was a bed, then. Dave swallowed again, and tried to calm down. A part of him knew that if he’d been placed on a bed to rest, that meant he was in no immediate danger, but…

As his muscles relaxed, pain assaulted him again, forcing its way through him. Instead of fighting it, Dave let it wash over him, gritting his teeth. Bro had taught him to accept the pain without wasting energy, and slowly he reigned control of himself, fighting his instinct to tense up again.

Slowly, one-two-three seconds ticking away, the pain receded.

Ok. He could work with this.

As soon as the ache dulled into a soft throbbing the thirst resurfaced, twice as strong, and Dave instinctively reached to the side with his arm, tentatively searching the empty space around him for a bedside table.

His fingers hit something, and he recoiled back in surprise, then moved forth, feeling sweat roll down his back. He was cold, and confused, but he still continued exploring the world at his reach.

The surface next to the bed was empty.

Disappointment hit him in the chest, and he gasped, tilting his head down. His senses were consumed with thirst, and he debated with himself whether to try standing or not, despite the pain, when a sudden noise coming from somewhere startled him out of his thoughts.

“Holy sh–” a sudden intake of breath. “You’re awake!”

Dave tensed up again, his head snapping to the source of the voice, twisting in bed to present his front to the enemy.

Doing that sent another flare of pain through his body, this time stronger, and Dave gasped out, choking and slumping forwards, body arching back up in a vain attempt to stop the burning pain.

“Oh, fu… uh, calm down kid, no need to get all fired up,” footsteps coming close, then a hand was pressed against his back, and another holding his shoulder, and Dave felt them slowly push him down.

He tried to twist away from the hold, but the hands were steady and didn’t allow him to move. With his back again on the thin mattress, Dave felt the last of his energy drain away and slumped down, and the movement chased the pain away, clearing his mind.

“There, keep calm, ok? You ought to stay still, with that wound it’s a miracle you’re already awake, let alone move, ok?” there was a humming undertone to the words, a soft sound that wormed its way through Dave’s mind, soothing him slightly.

All the while, he felt one hand press on his forehead, and another rub at the skin of his arm in what might have been a calming way.

Slowly, more due to his fatigue than his willingness to comply, Dave gave up and went boneless.

“There,” seemingly satisfied with his compliance, the hands retreated. “Better stay down, not sure if the stitches hold yet, ya get me? We don’t want you to rip your side open after all the work we’ve been doing to close you up. Shi– that was one whole crazy blood loss, I tell you. Don’t even know how you got it, but you’re lucky we were around–”

Dave, unable to concentrate enough on the person speaking to catch what they were saying, swallowed and tried to talk, his imperative still focused on getting something to drink.

“W…” his voice was barely a whisper, and he inwardly cursed at himself. “Water…?”

For a moment he thought he hadn’t managed to be loud enough for the other to hear, but then he felt a hand hold his head up gently, and something was pressed against his lips.

“Drink up, here, don’t bother talking for now. You’re safe”.

The voice continued talking, but Dave had stopped trying to listen as water –cool, delicious water– poured out of the cup and into his mouth.

As he swallowed the first sip, he could feel the liquid trickle inside his throat then down, sending a pleasant chill through his body.

Fuck, _yes_.

He tried to get a deeper mouthful, making a pathetic sound in his throat that would have embarrassed him if he’d given a fuck about it, but the hand holding the cup refused to give him more than a trickle at time, no matter how he stretched his neck forwards.

“Easy there I said, you don’t want to be coughing up,” the voice stated.

Dave sighed, part of him uncaring, but the reminder of the pain from his side calmed him down. It wasn’t as satisfying as drinking the full cup in one go, but he didn’t care as long as the water continued coming.

After a long silence, broken solely by Dave’s gulping sounds and heavy breathing, the cup was removed from his lips, and the person –a troll, this was surely a troll, because no human could produce that kind of sounds with a larynx– gently lowered his head back down.

He muttered a soft thank you, his throat hurting less now, but he didn’t even hear a reply, because he fell asleep the moment his head touched the mattress.

***

Voices speaking were what woke Dave up again, rousing him from dreamless sleep.

The ticking noise at the back of his brain, that had restlessly counted seconds even while he had been unconscious breathed a number through Dave’s brain, but he was still too tired to make any sense of it.

He parted his lips, slowly extending his conscience to his body. Again, he wriggled all his fingers and again he felt a wash of relief when he found them all responding to him.

He was thirsty again, but less than before, and he controlled the impulse this time, focusing his mind to his surroundings and his own body.

With tentative prodding, he tested the confines of his mattress, mind a bit clearer than before, fingers meeting the wooden edges of the bed and the rough seams of the ‘mattress’. Slowly, he lifted his arm to his face.

There was a soft cloth covering his eyes, which he somehow recalled being there before, but his memories of waking up earlier were too fuzzy. He remembered a voice, and water, but that was it.

He moved his hand down to his neck, then to his chest. He was uncovered, but there was soft cloth tied around his waist and even lower, disappearing at the hem of his boxers. Carefully avoiding where he knew was a wound, he inspected the skin around it with feathery touches.

He couldn’t move lower to check on his legs, and he didn’t want to risk pulling the muscles of his hip, so he simply wriggled his toes again, trying to take comfort in the fact that he could at least feel them.

Abandoning his arm back on the mattress, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over him, Dave pondered over his situation idly.

Belatedly, he realised he couldn’t hear the voices speak anymore, and froze.

“Wh–” his voice failed him and he swallowed thickly, trying to clear his throat. “Where are… you?”

There was some shuffling, then footsteps. They were loud enough for him to hear even in his weakened state, and he wondered if the person was being loud on purpose or not.

“You’re awake again, kid,” the same person as before, and Dave relaxed a bit at the familiar undertone, the soft humming making him take a deep breath, despite the tightness of his chest. “Thirsty?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, hoarse, and welcomed with gratitude as he was offered some more water to drink. “Thank you,” he breathed after a couple mouthfuls.

He felt weak and exposed, but he was glad to be still alive.

“Where… where am I?”

There was a short pause, then the other person made a soft whistling noise. “The new universe,” was the tentative answer. “You were lucky you fell close to my hive, sh… it’s crazy, if he hadn’t found you I am sure… uh, well, never mind that now. More water?”

Although he was still thirsty, Dave shook his head. He needed to know more. “Where… where are… Jade? John? … Karkat?”

Some more shifting, and a soft, buzzing sound that Dave vaguely recognised, though he didn’t know what it meant.

Still, the use of alien terms (he did say hive, did he) and the sounds that no human throat could produce were proof enough that his interlocutor was actually a troll.

“Uh, see, they are not here. Fu… it’s just us, ok? But it will be fine. Uuuh… You focus on resting, and telling me what happened, ok? We’ve been dying to know, ever since we found ourselves thrown down there! Can you believe it? One moment dead and celebrating his death, and then woo, just like that the bubbles burst open and we’re engulfed with light! I haven’t been in such a hype since my days with the Lost Weeaboos, sh… those were the days, I miss that sometimes…”

Dave swallowed again, lips set in a thin line. Most of what the unknown troll was saying just went flying over his head, but one thing stuck to his mind anyway.

His friends were not there.

What did that mean? Were they gone somewhere? When would they come back? Weren’t they supposed to land all in the same place once through the portal? How long had he been asleep?

Time ticking in the back of his mind resurfaced again, and whispered a six-digit number to him. He didn’t need to do the math, because his brain registered it and turned it into a smaller date.

Three days.

Three days, eight hours and forty-seven seconds.

 _Fuck_.

His mind a bit more focused, he tilted his head towards his interlocutor, though he couldn’t see him, and that reminded him… “My eyes…?”

“Ah, sh… yes, you’re right. Wait, they’re fine, calm down ok?” he heard the troll stand up and move through the room, and he heard a rustling sound.

Then he moved back to Dave’s side, and hands gently pressed against his forehead as the bandages covering his eyes were slowly taken away.

“Had to cover them, we found your cool shades all broken, and you reacted badly to the light… don’t think you were really conscious, but your eyes opened and you… dam… uh, you sounded like you were in pain. Here, try peeking, the window is closed so it shouldn’t hurt”.

The pressure against his eyes was removed, but Dave remained frozen with his eyes close, taking in what the nameless, faceless troll had just said.

His shades… broken?

“Hey, you fine over there? You look sick,” a finger prodded his forehead, and Dave’s eyes fluttered open in response. He had to wince, because even in the darkened room, his eyes were still a bit sensitive after sleeping so long.

His sight adjusted slowly, and he blinked a few stray tears away, searching in the room the troll he’d been speaking with until then.

The first thing he saw were his horns.

They were long and curved upwards at the sids of his head, much like a bull’s, and different from all the horns belonging to the trolls he’d known so far. He had unruly hair both red and black, and white sticks covered up the top half of his shirt.

There was something familiar in him, something that ticked the back of Dave’s brain, but he didn’t know what.

“Hey, see? No need to worry, uh, your eyes are perfectly ok!” the troll’s mouth tightened in a strained smile, and Dave sighed, looking away.

“Dave,” he muttered after a moment to collect his thoughts. “You said you found me. Thanks”.

“Ah, dude, it’s nothing!” a short, clipped laugh that didn’t last long, and Dave dared another glance at the troll. “Anyone would have done it, really! No big deal, nothing heroic or sh… like that!” the smile turned a bit less strained. “Ah, I’m Rufioh,” he added, pointing to himself.

Dave frowned a bit. The only troll with similar horns he’d seen in the dreambubbles was Tavros, so that meant…

“You’re the Beforus troll,” he croaked out.

The troll –Rufioh… the name also tickled Dave’s mind, but in a different way– nodded, his horns swaying in the air.

“Beforan, uh, if you don’t mind,” he replied. “You’re one of the humans who defeated the enemy. Holy da… that fight was spectacular, makes me kind of feel sad for missing out, you dig? But I never did get to go God Tier, so I would have been pretty useless, haha, ha…” again, he cleared his throat. “Was that how you got hurt?”

Dave licked his lips and shook his head slowly. “No. After the battle,” he muttered. “Unexpected dog coming back to bite my leg”.

He was growing drowsy again, and he cursed silently at his lack of energy. He had barely moved, and his body was already tired as fuck.

“Hey, you need rest, don’t let me keep you up dude, that’s not fine, not with that kind of wound. Just sleep it off, it will take a while before you can get up so…” Rufioh shrugged, his horns bobbing slightly. “There isn’t much to do around here, so leave it to me, ok?”

With a last blink, Dave’s eyes refused to open again, though he didn’t fall asleep instantly, merely resting and breathing, languidly thinking about the situation he was in.

Things didn’t quite feel right –why was this troll sitting around to help him? Where was… everybody? John, Rose, Jade… even Dirk…

Karkat…

Dave’s heart constricted as Karkat’s face, filled with shock, flickered through his mind. He’d looked pained, reaching out towards him, but Dave…

He exhaled slowly, trying to ignore the knot in his chest.

“You could have entered the room, you know, he doesn’t bite,” Rufioh’s voice, a bit muffled, reached Dave’s brain, and he focused on the words.

Who was he talking to…?

His mysterious interlocutor didn’t reply, and Rufioh emitted a low, clicking sound.

“Well, he got hurt before passing over, and he couldn’t have been in the woods for longer than a couple hours,” Rufioh continued talking, as if the silence didn’t bother him. his voice was rumbling and pleasing, and Dave sighed softly, relaxing some more. “Man, we should go out and get some food, he might be up to eat something next time he wakes! What do you say, you with me?”

Dave wasn’t expecting a reply, so when a curt, hissy voice replied, he was almost startled back into complete awareness.

“Showws wwhat _you_ knoww of wwounds,” the other person replied with a sniff. Dave’s mind, already losing his fight with sleep, vaguely wondered about that weird accent. “You can’t leavve ‘im alone Ruf, so _I_ mma goin’ to stay here wwhile _you_ go a hunt”.

This time it was Rufioh’s turn to be silent, and Dave felt a small seed of annoyance hum through him. He could take care of himself, he didn’t need to be babied… but it was hard to find something to say when his wounded side was keeping him bedridden.

“If you’re sure, I mean, you were the one who did all that dam… amazing job, there, pal, wouldn’t have been able to do it in your place, blood is sort of…” he made a short, clipped noise that sounded a bit like a shudder. “Well, what’d ya say, I’ll be off! Always feels nice to get your wings open for a flight, reminds me of home!”

The other voice muttered something too low for Dave to hear, and then they both walked away, leaving Dave alone in the room.

Still teetering on the brink of sleep, Dave tried to focus on something, to understand what felt so wrong in the situation, but there was no fighting it anymore; without him noticing, his thoughts turned jumbled, less coherent, and seconds later he was once again deeply asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any comment on my characterization (especially of the two characters appearing in this chapter) please do not hesitate to tell me. <3 Also if you like!


	3. Chapter 02

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post this, because if I had to keep re-reading it over and over, I would lose the will to publish it.

**Chapter 02**

**\---**

The next time Dave woke up, he felt a bit better.

Not much time had passed, in reality –it felt around a couple hours, his inner clock said– but his body didn’t feel like lead anymore.

Not tired enough to go back to sleep, Dave returned to his new routine of moving every part of his body to see if they were still there, and once satisfied with that, he moved to the next problem, one he could access without moving.

Trying to see if it was day or night outside the dimly lit room, Dave took a deep breath and concentrated on his inner clock, expanding his awareness enough that he could feel the power of time unravel under his fingers.

It was pleasing to know he still had some remains from the game, though puzzling –weren’t they supposed to return to normalcy after winning?

This train of thoughts was abandoned when he felt a dissonance in the beat of time, enough to make him cringe and to disrupt his concentration. Time slipped from his fingers and returned to its slumbering feeling from before, leaving him shivering.

He had trained himself to reach for it even under strain, because during the fight with LE he’d had to be as fast as he could, but this difference was unexpected.

Time ticked into the back of his head, and Dave latched to it again, this time approaching it slowly, paying attention to the familiar, musical beat.

There was a discordance between the time ticking in his head and the one he’d been used to until then –small, fractions of seconds piling up, but it was there, and it was enough to make Dave’s head hurt.

Not knowing how to interpret that, Dave released his grip on time and relaxed, trying to focus on something else, opening his eyes to look at the room he was in.

The troll called Rufioh was still gone, or at least hadn’t returned to his room yet, and he was sure the other troll wouldn’t want to come in if he knew Dave was awake, so for the present time, he was alone with his thoughts.

Concentrating on things was hard, and his thoughts easily scattered around, his brain as lethargic as his body, and Dave idly wondered if it was because of the blood loss that he couldn’t string a coherent line of thought.

The room was mostly bare; other than the bed he was using, there was just a table on the opposite wall, the small bedside table, now with a cup of water if he ever needed it, and that was it.

The window was covered with something, but the light wasn’t enough for him to see what it was; he didn’t feel cold, so the heating worked.

Another quick scan of the room told him that there was no heater in there, so it meant the room was heated through some other means; the thought made Dave look up, eyes looking from one side of the ceiling to the other in search of a dangling lamp or a source of light.

There was none.

No lamps anywhere else in the room, either.

Huh. Wasn’t that… weird?

The door was more like an opening in the wall, with one of those curtains of bamboo sticks acting as a barrier between the room and the world outside, and Dave sighed, relaxing on the bed again.

There was nothing else to do but he wasn’t tired, so instead of giving in to boredom and falling asleep again, Dave closed his eyes and concentrated on counting time.

He started mentally piling up seconds, one after the other. It was a relaxing, monotonous task, but even then he kept messing up, the way time ticked different from what Dave’s perception of seconds was.

One, two, three… four five, six, seven… eight…

It kept messing up, and Dave quickly grew annoyed at himself. Wasn’t he supposed to be the Time Hero? Why then…

The bamboo curtain rustled softly as someone peeked into the room, and Dave froze, concentration disrupted as he stilled on the bed. He hadn’t heard the sound of footsteps, too busy focusing on time.

Someone entered the room.

Eyes fluttering open again, Dave peered at the newcomer.

And stared.

It was another troll, as he’d thought, but different from Rufioh.

The angle didn’t allow Dave to check if he was tall or not, but his horns were smaller and wave-shaped, placed on top of his head and poking out from perfectly slicked black hair. There was a streak of a lighter colour in the middle, but with the current light he couldn’t say which colour it was –could easily be blue, violet or brown.

Also, and Dave blinked in surprise when he noticed, instead of normal, pointed ears like all the other trolls he’d met before, this one had fins sprouting from the sides of his face. As Dave was observing them, they fluttered slightly.

Huh. Curious.

The troll was wearing the usual black shirt with a symbol on it, two wavy lines one on top of the other. It looked a bit like a stylization of the sea, or something.

When the unknown troll turned fully towards him, Dave closed his eyes again, not wanting him to realise he was awake; he had a feeling that the troll would leave again if he did, and Dave was actually grateful for the impromptu visit breaking the monotony of his counting time.

He felt the troll shuffle closer, and the hair of his arms stood up, part of him feeling extremely vulnerable and wanting to move and protect himself, even though he knew there was nothing to worry about.

Instincts were hard to overcome.

Still, he managed not to move.

For a few long seconds –one, two, three… dissonance, four– nothing moved. This close, Dave could hear the troll breathing, deep and controlled. Neither moved, and he wondered what the troll was looking at.

Then something cool touched his forehead, and Dave was startled out of his self-imposed immobility, his eyes snapping open instantly as he tensed.

“Fuck–” the troll’s hand darted away from his forehead as if burned, and Dave felt him move away from the bed, as if expecting him to attack.

Dave didn’t care much about that, because he was too busy fending off a wave of dizziness, groaning and digging his hands into the bed in a vain attempt to keep the world from spinning.

“Shit, you ok?”

The troll stepped forwards, hovering above him but not daring to touch him again, and Dave exhaled slowly, gritting his teeth.

“N-not sure,” he replied honestly. “You… surprised me”.

“No shit, you surprised me too! Wweren’t you sleepin’?” the defensive tone would have been amusing if Dave had been feeling well enough for that.

“Nope,” he replied.

After another tense inhale, Dave relaxed again, and opened his eyes to get a closer look at the troll. The guy was wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses, and his mouth was set in a small, pouty grimace.

“You shouldn’t be awwake,” the troll continued, almost as if Dave had done him great offense by not being sleeping. “You need ta rest”.

“Can’t sleep all the fucking time, man,” he replied, casting a casual glance towards the water cup and wondering if he could get to that without feeling dizzy again. He swallowed.

The troll caught the glance and hesitated, then moved to the other side of the bed, grabbed the cup roughly and shoved it in front of Dave’s face.

“Here, havve at it,” he stated.

Dave’s eyes flicked from his face to the cup, then grabbed it with a vaguely unsteady hand and twisted his neck up, sipping the liquid. He was grateful he could do that on his own, because getting babied wasn’t cool by any stretch of imagination.

“Thanks,” he said when he felt the thirst subside.

The troll stole the cup again and put it back on the table, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“No biggie,” was the muttered reply. “Need anythin’ else?”

Dave thought about it, then shook his head. “Nah, chill as I could be,” he stated.

“Chill as anyone could be wwith havvin’ a ten-inches wwound in your side,” the troll grunted, moving once again on the other side of the bed, leaning forwards to inspect the bandages. “Don’t you fuckin dare ta mess up my wwork,” he added.

It felt more like a whine than a threat, and Dave had no intention to reopen his wound anyway, so he shrugged.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The troll froze and glared down at him, then his eyes flicked from one side of the room to the other, as if considering whether to run or not. After a few seconds, his shoulders dropped in defeat.

“Eridan,” he replied. “The fuckin’ troll wwho savved your alien ass”.

“I thought… that was Rufioh,” Dave frowned and looked at the door, then back at the troll… Eridan.

“I found you,” Eridan looked a mix of proud and annoyed, for reasons Dave couldn’t understand. He didn’t even want to try. “An’ I stitched you up”.

Dave glanced down at his bandaged side, and shivered; he was glad he hadn’t been awake for that, the only time Bro had cut him up deep enough to need the stitched had been a painful moment, indeed.

“Uh. Thank you, then,” he swallowed, fingers tapping on the bed’s surface as a way to dispel the awkward feeling.

Something passed on the troll’s face, but Dave couldn’t read it, so he let it go.

“Yeah, wwhatevver,” he mumbled, turning around to leave, then stopping and moving back to look at him.

Dave was amused by the way the troll was standing, his back straight and muscles stiff, and part of that amusement was probably visible because Eridan hunched forwards a bit and looked away.

Hmm, the guy was weird.

“Uh, Rufioh’s gone ta get somethin to eat,” he scratched his chin absently, and Dave hummed. “Just don’t movve around,” he said.

He hesitated again, and Dave looked up at him, waiting. When the troll didn’t speak, choosing to look around the room instead, he sighed.

“Hey, I’m not going to break if you want to ask something, ok?” his words startled Eridan out of his trance, and the troll’s eyes zoomed on him. “I promise I don’t bite,” he added, referencing Rufioh’s words from before.

Eridan stiffened, eyeing him suspiciously. “You wwon, right,” he grunted out after another couple seconds of silence.

“Yeah,” Dave nodded. “Didn’t the others tell you already?”

Eridan’s stiff posture seemed to become even stiffer, and Dave frowned. “What,” he asked, wishing he could stand.

He swallowed, his mouth dry again, and turned his attention to the water again, reaching out slowly to grab the cup and drink from it.

“There are no others”.

It was just a mumble, but it made Dave freeze.

His fingers tightened around the cup, and some of the water sloshed out, dripping on his hand and down on the bed; to avoid wasting more water, Dave cautiously placed down the cup again, and turned his eyes to Eridan.

“What,” he asked again, his voice monotone out of shock.

“Nobody’s here,” there was a challenging look in Eridan’s eyes, and Dave felt a sudden vertigo, followed by a cold sensation growing inside his stomach. “Just you, me an’ Ruf”.

Licking his lips, Dave clenched his hands into fists to hide the trembling.

“Where… where are the others?” Dave’s eyes fluttered around the room and its bareness, then back to the troll, searching for an hint that would explain what was going on. “What do you mean there’s just us?”

Eridan shrugged evasively. “Wwe’vve been here for round a perigee, n’ you wwere the only one wwe’vve seen”.

The cold sensation spread through him, and Dave instantly closed his eyes, fending off the abrupt wave of panic and blocking it under control. Then, he opened his eyes again, pinning Eridan with a glare.

“What is this place?” he asked, urgent. “Aren’t we in the new universe?”

Eridan had backed away slightly under Dave’s glare, but he seemed to gain confidence again and nodded. “Yes,” he replied simply. “Wwe are”.

“Then why–”

“Don’t ask, I havve no idea, nor does Ruf,” Eridan brushed one hand through his hair, chewing on his lower lip. “You should rest, ain’t goin ta get any better if you fret, wwon’t make em pop up at your call”.

Of course, Dave knew that –his side was hurting already because his muscles were all tense, but he couldn’t just relax. Of all the things he’d expected when waking up, finding out he was alone with no idea where his friends were was not one of them.

“Where are we?” he asked, his tone urgent, demanding.

Eridan glared at him, and shrugged. “Somewwhere on the planet, in a forest or somethin’, not sure. Ruf built this place before I wwas evven around”.

The cold was spreading quickly, and Dave swallowed again, staring at the troll with wide eyes. “You… where did you appear?”

“Ah, don’t mistake me, I popped ‘round here, just not together wwith Ruf,” Eridan explained, his tone a bit impatient. “Maybe a couple wweeks ago, found the hivve here and decided ta stay”.

Fuck.

“Wwe wweren’t expectin’ ta find someone because Ruf searched a lot wwithout findin’ no one before I got here, an’ wwhen wwe found you, you wwere also hurt,” the troll continued, apparently not noticing Dave paling.

Fuck.

Holy shitty burning fuck.

Fingers gripping the edge of the bed tightly, Dave gritted his teeth and tried to hoist himself up into a sitting position. Pain flared up instantly as he moved, and Eridan let out a distressed sound, trying to get closer. Dave glared at him, pupils wide and an intense, angered expression, and it made the troll back away with a weird throat chirrup.

Panting and wheezing, Dave managed to shift up enough that he could slip one hand under his side and help himself, but the pain ripping from his side made him see white, and he almost crumpled back down, tears of exertion filling his eyes.

Fuck.

“Wwhat the actual fuck!” Eridan, recovered from the glare, moved to his side and pushed his shoulders, making a weird clicking sound, and Dave went down instantly, not enough energy to fight back.

He gasped and flailed a bit, nails digging into something soft, and held onto it as the pain burned through him, making it hard to focus on anything except his heart racing in his chest, every beat bringing a new twinge.

Slowly, painstakingly slow, the pain dulled again, though this time it didn’t go away, and Dave slumped fully on the bed. His ears stopped ringing, and sounds started pouring in again; the first was a low, pathetic noise that sounded like someone whining, and belatedly Dave realised that he was the one making that noise.

With a gasp, he clamped his lips shut and breathed loudly through his nose, nostrils flaring and eyes wide.

Fuck.

Goddamn it.

“Hey, you ok?” a blurred face appeared in Dave’s drastically reduced sight, and he swallowed down bile as he shook his head. “Of course you’re not ok, fuck, wwhat the hell got into you?”

Dave slowly relaxed, his fingers growing lax, and he felt Eridan move away, letting go of his shoulders.

He was still having a hard time breathing, panic gnawing at his insides, brain trying to think about what went wrong, but slipping through thoughts without being able to stick to one.

“Open that fuckin’ mouth and breathe,” the troll ordered, and Dave swallowed, realising his lips were still pressed shut.

He parted his lips and sucked air in, drawing quick, shuddery gasps.

He had no idea where everybody else was except two trolls he didn’t even know, and had no idea if Jade and Karkat had even made it through… no, obviously they were safe, Bec Noir had returned to his original form before Dave had fallen through, so…

Why were they not together in the same place? What had happened? Did they screw up on the new universe? They weren’t even sure what kind of world they had created in the first place, what the Game had seen fit to give them.

What if everybody was safely together except for Dave?

What if they were in danger, though?

Unable to stand still anymore, forgetting about his wound, Dave tried to move, and again Eridan pushed him down, fiercely.

Dave let out a pained grunt.

“I can’t stay here,” he said, and his voice was more of a whine than a statement. “What if they need me?”

“Yes, because you wwould be so helpful right noww,” Eridan scoffed, poking his bandages a few inches above the wound, lifting one eyebrow when Dave let out a soft whimper. “There are things out there that wwould eat ya, an’ I wwon’t let you wwaste all my wwork because you’re a suicidal alien ass”.

Dave was still shivering, panting and frantic, but he didn’t try moving anymore.

This time, when the troll touched his forehead, he didn’t even flinch. Eridan’s fingers were clammy, but cool, and sort of good against his skin.

“Wwhat’s your normal temperature?” Eridan asked.

Dave mumbled a reply, and Eridan hissed, his fins fluttering again. “I havve no idea wwhat that means,” he scoffed. “But you might be fevverish, so don’t movve till I come back, did ya hear me?”

Dave grunted and nodded, abandoned against the mattress, and Eridan turned around and strutted out of the room. Dave watched him go with hazy eyes, and then he was alone again.

Silence enveloped him all of sudden, and with it, all of his thoughts crashing through him.

This was not how it was supposed to go.

He was alone in the new universe, with no idea where the others were, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt like there was a gaping hole in his chest, growing and eating him alive.

Where was Karkat? John? Rose?

Were they ok?

Dave’s hand slowly curled into a fist around the thin mattress, clenching it until his knuckles turned white.

The new world was probably as big as old Earth, maybe more, and if they were all scattered around, how long would it take to find each other again?

How long would he have to stay still and recover before being able to walk again and go find them?

It was getting hard to breathe, so Dave opened his mouth wide and forced himself to take deep, shuddery gasps, his heart thrumming in his temples.

He felt sick. His eyes were burning and his side hurt, and he was having a hard time calming down. The tips of his fingers tingled and ached, and he had to stop himself from making more embarrassing, pathetic sounds.

What if he hadn’t appeared close to Rufioh and Eridan’s makeshift house? Would he have died? Could he even die and be reborn in this universe, or did he get his powers but not the other perks of being a godtier?

All the thinking was making his brain feel like sludge.

Dave lifted his fist and slammed it down against the bed, but the motion vibrated through his body and his side flared up in pain again; he cursed loudly, biting down on his lip harshly to stop the sounds of pain.

A trail of sweat rolled down his nose, and he could feel it on his back, too, sticky and cool.

He hated this.

He hated the fact that he got hurt, and not even because of LE, but because of _Bec_ fucking _Noir_. He hated that he’d tumbled into the new universe and got lost, and he hated not knowing anything, and being weak and dependant on those two trolls.

And feeling shitty.

Fuck.

He couldn’t even curl up on himself, close his eyes and pretend to be on the meteor again, or even back home, because every time he moved, pain racked through him, reminding him where he really was.

Fuck.

After everything he’d gone through, the feeling of being lost was the worse.

He wanted to see Karkat. He wanted to see Rose, and Jade, and John, and Dirk, and everybody.

Dave blinked, trying to focus on the ceiling, and took a shaky breath, feeling horrid and lonely. He was usually good at holding up under stress, but now he could barely breathe right without crumbling.

He brought one hand to his forehead, testing it. His hand was warm, but his forehead was warmer, and the contact was almost pleasant. And his throat was parched again.

Ah. Shit. The troll –Eridan– was right. He was feverish.

Taking some shallow breaths to calm himself down, Dave tried to steer his thoughts away from his friends; it wouldn’t do to let the gloomy mood settle in. He needed to rest and wait for the wound to heal, and then he could go and search for the others.

He had no idea why the two trolls hadn’t moved to find more of their groups, but as soon as he was healed enough, he would leave.

He wanted to find everybody, especially Karkat. And then…

Fuck, he’d almost died. Maybe he’d been a coward for not telling him before, though he wasn’t even sure they’d get to live past the battle against LE, but now… now if he ever found the troll again, he would definitely tell him.

Shit.

Instinctively he tried to curl up on his side, his body moving on its own, but renounced the moment his side gave a warning throb. He felt sick. Everything was hurting and he missed his friends.

He missed Bro.

The feeling was so sudden Dave was left feeling like he’d been punched in the guts.

He was a fucking Hero of Time. He’d sacrificed his life more than once knowing it would make them win. He’d fought against a green monster of doom. He’d thrown dead alternate selves into lava pits without breaking a sweat…

And now he just felt like crying.

It made him feel like he was a kid again, and the feeling only strengthened his need to see Bro. Childish as it might be, abrupt and unexpected, the need to let _him_ handle things was overwhelming.

Bro always knew how to make him feel better when he was sick. He’d sit by him and awkwardly pat his head, a plate of broth ready for when his stomach settled instead of swords and smuppets, and then there would be amazing stories about meteors and horses that Dave found to be the most awesome shit ever, even if they were clearly too silly to be true.

And afterwards, Dave would fall asleep, with Bro still there, making sure he would be ok… and things were fine.

Bro was dead.

He missed Bro. He missed his life. Even shitty Texas on shitty Earth.

Fuck.

Footsteps echoed in the unknown world outside his room, and though hazy, Dave’s mind instantly zeroed on them, listening as Eridan made his way back to him.

Grunting, Dave tried to compose himself, not wanting to make himself more of a fool, forcing his lips into a thin line and making the muscles of his face go lax.

The troll’s footsteps were heavy, and when he appeared on the door he was holding a huge bowl carved in wood, filled to the brim with water; as he walked towards the bed, the water sloshed out of the sides and fell on the floor and onto his fingers, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“There,” Eridan called out, placing the bowl onto the side table and watching Dave with an expectant stare. “Wwell?”

Slightly disorientated, Dave blinked at him. “Well what?” he asked, confused.

Eridan looked at him, then at the bowl, then back at him, and his lips pursed into another pout as he took out something from the bowl, squeezing it then holding it out for Dave to take; it was a rag –a clean one, probably had been a shirt once.

Comprehension flooded him, and Dave grabbed the cloth with a grateful look, pressing it on his own forehead. The contact with the drenched towel made him hiss, but it also felt heavenly against his heated skin, and he relaxed instantly.

“Thanks,” he muttered.

With a deep, shuddery breath, he closed his eyes and let the cool towel soothe him.

He didn’t have the strength to change the towel if it got warm, but he could enjoy the cool against his forehead for now.

For a while, the only sounds were Dave’s own breathing and the soft, even thump of his heart; he distantly wondered if the troll had left, but he didn’t care much, aside for the twinge of regret at being left alone when sick.

Things hardly made sense anymore, and the different pace, the forced stillness, dragged a sort of heaviness from him that hadn’t been there previously; he felt sluggish and tired, but also felt bad for relaxing, his brain trying to mediate between his intense desire to move and his body’s need to rest.

For a while, Dave slipped in and out of consciousness, only aware of the feeling of coolness on his forehead and how the rest of his body felt weirdly hot; a few times his thoughts strayed in weird tangents, morphing into muddled images and flashes of colours, and more than once he wondered idly if he’d have to change the towel soon, but it was still cool.

Clothes rustled close to his ears, and he groaned, but couldn’t open his eyes.

As the knowledge that someone was actually replacing the wet towel for him finally wormed its way in his mind, Dave once again succumbed to sleep.

Eridan squirmed, grumbling under his breath, and observed cautiously as the human finally fell into a deeper sleep, his breathing slowing down and losing the shuddery quality.

His eyes flickered to the door, silently grovelling because Rufioh was still gone, then grunted and dunk the damp towel into the bowl again, squeezing out the excessive water before placing it again on Dave’s forehead.

Despite his clear annoyance, his motions were careful, as not to wake up the ill human.

Eridan licked his lips, staring down at the knight of time, unsure about what to do, then turned around and stomped out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow moving, I'm sorry. Next chapter things will be a bit more action-y (probably). Again, if you have comments or whatever, feel free to drop 'em to me :) <3 thanks to whoever is reading and enjoying!


	4. Chapter 03

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a while and while it's slightly longer, the pace is still slow, but I can't really hasten it up too much or I'll just lose sight of what I want to accomplish... I still hope it keeps you interested!
> 
> Also, reminding you that ≈~~≈ means flashback.

**Chapter 03**

≈~~≈

When Karkat got to the alchemizer’s room, he was almost startled to find the block not as empty as he’d hoped.

Nobody was actually _using_ the alchemizer, but there was a pile in a corner, and inside it there was Dave.

Karkat blinked in surprise, unsure what to think about the situation, and when the door slid close behind his back he froze, waiting for the human to wake.

He didn’t.

He had absolutely no idea why Dave was even there on his own instead of being around Terezi, like always, but he wouldn’t be deterred just because someone else was in the room.

In fact, it was almost ok. The guy was asleep anyway, he wouldn’t bother Karkat at all.

With a grunt, he moved over to the alchemizer, checking on the virtual monitor as he punched each code in, hoping to find the one he wanted.

After a while, he stopped glancing over at Dave and immersed himself into his work, soon forgetting he was even there in the first place, and when he finally managed to punch the right code, after numerous useless attempts, he emitted a loud thrill, his throat vibrating to echo his satisfaction.

That was enough to rouse Dave from his sleep.

“Hey, what’re you doing in here?”

Startled away from his furious typing, Karkat looked over at Dave, who was rubbing his eyes with one hand, shades pushed up on top of his head.

“Alchemizing, of course,” Karkat muttered, shrugging slightly and moving to the side to spend the grist needed for the object.

“Been seein’ you less around, lately,” Dave continued, breaking the silence and making Karkat groan. “Where have you been? Cuddling your juggalo?”

Karkat’s hands froze around the lever, and he busied himself with the machine, pressing the right button. A DGD (Digital Grub Disc) materialized in front of him.

Dave went silent for a moment, correctly interpreting his reaction. “He’s gone again? Where the fuck could he even go? Half the meteor’s empty barren land!”

Growling despite himself, Karkat grabbed the small object and turned to look at the human.

“The fucking mass of uncaring asshole’s probably lost waggling somewhere on the meteor, God only knows where he’s dragging his bony carcass, and of course everybody’s expecting me to know shit about his whereabouts, as if he’s actually telling me that stuff!”

“Oi, oi, Karkat, chill, wasn’t trying to ask anything out of you, am not Kanaya, ok?” lifting both arms to placate Karkat’s sudden anger, Dave eyed the DGD cover. “Is that a movie?”

Eyes narrowed suspiciously, Karkat nodded. “One of my favourite romcoms. I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while, now”.

For a moment, Dave remained silent. “Let’s watch it together, man”.

“What the fuck,” Karkat, shoulders hunched a bit, stepped away from the human. “Are you planning something underhanded, Strider? I won’t play your stupid games, I’m not in the mood”.

Thin lips turned into a displeased line, and dark red orbs narrowed in mock hurt –though Karkat had to admit he looked honesty hurt. “Karkat, hear me up, this ain’t irony, ok? I listen to your book stories without complaining, movie’s just faster and won’t make you sound like Christopher Lloyd afterwards”.

Karkat’s cheeks turned darker, about to deny the accusation, then he thought better of it and paused.

“C’mon, don’t you want to educate me further?” Dave’s eyebrows wiggled as he said that, a smirk on his lips, and Karkat snorted.

Watching things with Strider would –maybe– be better than just watch them on his own, since Kanaya was oftentimes busy with Rose and his fucking moirail was off who knew where.

“Let me catch the Mayor, I’m sure he would like to be into this too,” Dave stood up, cracking his shoulders, looking like a man on a mission. “He’s been missing in on the fun for too long”.

A bit startled by the sudden mention of the carapace, Karkat blinked, but had nothing to say against it.

“Don’t waste time or I’ll start the movie without you two,” he groused.

“Don’t _nag_ or I won’t bring any snacks,” Dave retorted.

Despite himself, Karkat smiled a bit as he watched the human vacate the block.

Ten minutes later they were all sitting in Karkat’s respiteblock, with plenty of snacks and the Mayor nested between them, a look of wonder on his face.

As Karkat played his favourite romcom movie and settled back into the makeshift pile, he had to admit that while this wasn’t how Karkat had expected it to go, it wasn’t actually all that bad.

Glancing over at Dave, the human’s face focused on the movie, he wrinkled his nose and smiled a bit.

≈~~≈

“Seriously, I’m going to die here, no ifs or buts, and you’ll drown in guilt, I tell you”.

Rufioh turned slightly towards the human, observing him with a small, patient smile, and Dave rolled his eyes at him.

No matter the lengths Dave went to convince the troll, no matter how much time he spent drawling on and on, ranting and, at one point, even rapping, Rufioh never gave in, his slightly apologetic, cheerful smile unwavering.

Dave, to put it simply, was really bored.

“You just broke out of your fever, man, stuff is _serious_ , can’t let you out so easily, you know?” Rufioh made a small wave with one arm, encompassing the room. “Better stay here, don’t you agree?”

“No, man, Rufioh, pal, no, I _can’t_ agree, shit’s boring, like you wouldn’t believe, I’m growing cobwebs, dust all over my aged body, until I’ll be just a relic of the past, and you–”

“Ya know that won’t actually help,” Rufioh interrupted him, the grin turning slightly cheeky. “You’re talking to someone who’s been dead for more time than you, little time player, can imagine. Besides,” he added, toothy grin widening, “I don’t even think you can stand on your own, wound’s not close for good, and I’m not going to be risking your sh… your health by conceding ya some tour ‘round the hive!”

Dave groaned, looking away from Rufioh to stare at the empty, boring wall on the side.

The fever had marginally compromised his recovering, he was aware of that –he’d wasted another day by sleeping on and off, barely eating, and could almost feel the way his body was weakening without his usual training regime.

Rufioh was nice enough to spend quite some time at his bedside, as the troll had no trouble talking Dave’s ears off and offer him more water whenever Dave needed it.

“Things here are sort of enticing, feels right like being back on Beforus, ya know? Man, those were such rowdy days, ya can’t understand, I swear, livin’ in the forest, hunting food, building hives… thrilling life, and ‘round here it’s been the same crazy shi… yeah, anyway!”

With a good dose of cheer, Rufioh had described him how the hive looked, or at least how the hive he’d built on Beforus had looked –Dave wasn’t exactly sure, sometimes Rufioh seemed to confuse things on his own– and had been rather unhelpful on most other accounts, like explaining what animals the meat he cooked for Dave came from, or how far he’d travelled to check for other people.

By the way he seemed to avoid those things, growing slightly nervous and abruptly changing subject, Dave had quickly understood that Rufioh, surprisingly, liked his solitary status.

He didn’t seem to mind having Dave around, though, or the other troll Eridan –who had yet to make an appearance since the fever had gone away– and it made things even more complicated.

Dave didn’t care enough to ask him if he missed his friends, or at least he didn’t have enough strength to pursue the subject yet.

Still, the troll couldn’t be around to entertain Dave all the time, even if he disliked staying put. Trying to stand on his own was a no-no, because the wound wasn’t just a scratch.

The bandages had been changed only once while he’d been awake, and the sight had left him pale and worried.

The gash was long, and diagonal due to the way Bec Noir had plunged in, and when Dave had fallen backwards the sword had slid up, ripping through more of his flesh. The skin surrounding the wound was red and infected due to the nature of the blade, but further away it simply itched, covered with rash.

Eridan had made a good job with the sewing, though –the thread was thin, and it kept the wound close, and the lower and upper corners had already started to scar, which was a good thing.

If he had been stingy on details regarding their exact position in the new world, Rufioh had been overly helpful about what Eridan had done, punctuating everything with comments on how he disliked blood in general, and that he could totally fight, but putting together stuff, and humans, ‘that was actually different crap, no offense!’.

He’d also happily commented that the bandages used on Dave’s wound were coming from Eridan’s purple cape, because Dave’s own one had been bloody and dirty, and as such unusable.

“Just wait some more, will ya? ‘nother week or so and you’ll be fine, probably, if you don’t try anything crazy!” Rufioh patted Dave’s shoulder, and Dave groaned, pouting slightly.

“You say that, but how would you like it if you were the one supposed to keep still?”

“Have been in a similar situation when I pupated, man,” Rufioh’s sympathetic smirk faltered when Dave looked at him in confusion. “Didn’t ya know that? I thought you’ve been staying with trolls for a while?”

“Wasn’t a subject to talk about over tea,” the human shrugged slowly, testing his muscles and relaxing when the movement didn’t make him hurt.

“Well, when I first pupated I got those beauties here,” Rufioh pointed to his carefully folded wings, poking from behind him in their relaxed state. “Don’t look like much, but you won’t believe how strong they are. I tell ya what, when you’re feeling better I’m bringing you out for a grand tour, what’d ya say?”

Considering he wasn’t even sure if his post-game body would let him fly, the idea was appealing enough to make Dave nod.

“Sure thing, but if you drop me I’m going to go ballistic on your ass”.

Rufioh, seemingly started, glanced around frantically before catching himself, then blinked and looked chagrined, then sheepish. “Always forget he ain’t ‘round to check on us, jeez, that guy seemed to have auricular sponge clots everywhere, popping up whenever he thought we’d used triggering words”.

Dave snorted. “Wait, you mean Vantas senior? The red jumper asshole?”

Rufioh winced again, but as nothing happened for the second time, he looked mighty relieved.

“Uhm, yeah, Kankri had a, _penchant_ , for knowing how to butt in on us, whoa,” shaking his head, Rufioh smiled a bit. “Good pal, of course, but a tad bit focused on the wrong stuff, you get?”

“Totally,” Dave nodded sagely.

Thinking of the way Kankri had chased Karkat around, just for the sake of ranting his ‘auricular sponge clots’ off, Dave almost snickered before being reminded that Karkat, just like everybody else, was not around.

Instantly his mirth evaporated.

Rufioh didn’t seem to notice Dave’s abrupt change of mood, or maybe he did, because he stood up from the makeshift chair and licked his lips.

“I’m off to gather some more wood, I’ll be back in a couple hours, ya gonna be ok?”

“Yeah, I’ll just engage some dust to a mighty battle of intellect,” he shrugged, slumping down the bed again.

Rufioh grinned at him, patting his arm gently in a reassuring way, and Dave found himself relaxing slightly. It could have been way worse, but Rufioh really managed to dispel a bad mood with his strong attitude.

“Don’t let the dust beat ya into a pulp again, Mr Strider,” the troll teased him good naturedly, “Your pride wouldn’t survive”.

“Ooh, sassy,” he replied with a smirk.

He watched Rufioh go, and his smirk wavered and disappeared. With another sigh, he contented himself with running his fingers down his side, testing where the skin still hurt, even though the layers of bandages, and where it didn’t anymore.

He absently checked the time, faltering for a second when the dissonance still jarred him, then quickly steered himself away, and counted slowly up to five, aligning himself to the new flow.

The new planet’s stirring and turning in the background was helping Dave, smoothing the transition to the new ticking, but it would still take some time to adjust, since he didn’t know much of this world.

It wasn’t hard to see that there was a different way to count time, but he was too used to his own to be able to accept the new one yet.

He shuffled a bit on the bed, then strengthened his resolve and started shifting around, using his elbows to slowly hoist himself up to a sitting position.

There was no way he could get up on his own, not without the help of someone else, no matter how much he disliked the lack of independency, but the idea of being alone again in the room was getting to be too much.

The weight shifted as he balanced himself, and his side gave a warning jolt, making him tense; slowly, he pushed himself up until he was sitting, and with some satisfaction, Dave took a deep breath, keeping his back straight so he wouldn’t put weight where it hurt.

Ok, he could work with this.

Small metaphorical steps.

They would get to be less metaphorical if he could stand up, but…

“He’s been gone for ten minutes an you’re already disobeyin’, wwhat an annoyin’ guy”.

Startled out of his satisfied trance, Dave looked up, deer caught in the streetlight, eyes wide, and stared at Eridan. The troll was peeking into the room, only his head visible from behind the corner of the door until he stepped to the side, revealing himself whole.

Dave inhaled sharply, forcing his heart to calm down, and grimaced at him.

“Way to make a guy lose a couple years of his life, shit,” he wheezed. “What are you, my personal guard?”

Eridan snorted slightly, though he didn’t move from the door. “Seems I mighta be that, else you’ll just try ta run ‘round reopenin’ your wwounds”.

“I wasn’t going to,” he replied a bit too quickly, caught guilty but not wishing to admit it. “I’m just bored as fuck, I could as well try to stand or something, give a guy some leeway will you. You’re not the one stuck on this shitty bed”.

Eridan regarded him for a moment, making Dave wonder what he saw in him –what kind of pathetic mess he had to be– then he finally slid inside the room, moving carefully towards him.

“It doesn’t seem to be reopenin’,” the troll carefully admitted, watching Dave’s side for a moment. “Does it itch?”

Dave nodded, swallowing, and Eridan seemed somewhat relieved.

“You’re healin’ quickly,” he stated. “I guess you can stay sittin’ for a wwhile”.

Dave considered his options carefully, then threw caution to the wind. “Help me get up,” he ordered.

“Wwhat?” the troll looked befuddled and sort of affronted.

Dave restrained a snort.

“C’mon, I’ve been coped up enough here,” he coaxed him. “Get me out of this room for a second, I promise I’ll be a little obedient pet, you won’t even have to scold me to come back. I can’t stand on my own, Rufioh’s right, but I really wanna out. The same four walls all the time, I can tell you exactly how many cracks there are,” he pointed at the ceiling. “Fifty-three, not to mention I counted the wooden boards you used for the walls, there’s twenty three on this side and twenty on that one, and the one under the window is slightly smaller so–”

“Ok, I get it, I get it, you’re bored as fuck!” Eridan lifted both hands to make him stop, but Dave was on a roll.

“Oh, and there’s a nice nest of spiders on that side, there are four of them, mommy’s been pretty busy round here. I named them all, they’ve been the highlights of my day,” Dave motioned up, where there was a visible cobweb spreading from one side of the ceiling to the other.

He paused, looking back at Eridan.

“That one’s called Bill, by the way,” he pointed at his shoulder.

Eridan’s eyes zeroed on his shoulder, and they went slightly wide in surprise as he noticed a small spider dangling from a single, translucent thread.

“Wwhat the–”

He lifted his hand and tried to grab the spider in reflex, but caught the web instead, scrunching up his nose at the feeling of stickiness under his finger.

The little spider dangled from his hands for a moment before the thread snapped and it fell on the ground, small enough to disappear between the boards.

“Eww,” he groaned, wiping his hand on his shirt.

“Aw, that’s so much fun, I’ll be entertained for hours now that I know there’s a spider unaccounted for running around in my room,” Dave rolled his eyes.

Eridan pouted, still busy wiping his fingers, but seemed to consider the request, eyes moving from the empty room to the human. “If… an I’m sayin’ _if_ ,” he cautiously started, watching as Dave’s eyes focused on him again, sharp and hopeful, “if I’m gettin’ you up an all, but you can’t stand evven wwith my help, wwill you shut the fuck up an be good?”

Dave hastily nodded. He didn’t care shit if he looked so hopeful his Bro would cringe at his puppy behaviour. He was so _done_ with all this shit.

“Anything you say, cap,” he reassured the troll, smirking. “Offer me your shoulder and we can see, c’mon, Eridan, pal, that’s all I ask you, I will be quiet and nice and I won’t be straining myself, just a walk around…”

“You’re a wweird alien,” Eridan moved even closer, still looking slightly harried and still definitely suspicious, but he did place himself next to the bed, looking down at Dave with the same expectant face as before.

“Man, I know I said I would be quiet like a fish, but you’d better get down here and offer more than just an expectant stare, I can’t very much stand as it is, not if you don’t want to spend the next hour sewing me up like a coat”.

Eridan made a small sound, a soft click followed by a very low, bubbling noise, and Dave blinked at him –it wasn’t anything he’d ever heard any of the other trolls do, so it was something peculiar to this guy. Like the weird gills on his face.

Fishy, and a part of his mind snorted at his own badly placed pun. If John had been around, he would have laughed.

Much to Dave’s surprise, Eridan was stronger than he looked –instead of letting Dave hoist his weight up by leaning on his shoulder, he actually tugged him up easily, fast enough that Dave’s vision went blurry for a moment, and he had to gasp, grabbing the troll’s chest to steady himself, knuckles white.

When he focused again, he was standing, and the pain shooting from his midsection was actually bearable enough, as long as the troll continued holding most of his weight.

“Ok…” he cleared his throat, trying to swallow the knot he felt. “I think we can work this out”.

Eridan looked at him, perplexed and slightly confused, but remained silent.

“Man, you’re cold,” Dave commented, straightening his back and trying to take a step.

He watched as the hand holding his shoulder tightened up, and when he glanced over at the troll’s face, he could see Eridan’s gills flutter madly against his cheeks, his eyes wide behind those hipster glasses and his cheeks slightly darker.

“What,” he asked, surprised at the reaction.

“Wwhat the fuck do you mean, cold. I’vve been nice an helpin’ you, an you tell me I’m _cold_?!”

Dave snorted at the indignant way the troll was acting, blubbering and clicking at him, and still holding him up in a steady grip. Without thinking about it, he patted the troll’s chest with his free hand.

“Shoosh man, I meant to say your skin’s cold. Jeez, don’t get your gills in a twist,” focusing down on his feet, Dave moved his weight forwards, and Eridan, though still totally baffled, followed him.

His side sent him a warning twinge, but his legs didn’t give out on him, which was totally a point in his favour.

Hell yes.

“Hell, yes,” he muttered under his breath, though aware that the troll was holding most of his weight.

“Don’t rush it,” Eridan warned him, but didn’t stop him as Dave took another step. “Easy there, or I swwear I’ll _drop_ you”.

Feeling a rush of satisfaction at being on his feet, Dave barely heard Eridan’s threat, and instead pushed himself forwards. His legs were sort of weak (it felt like he hadn’t used them in a long time, and the leg on the same side as the wound hurt like a bitch when he shifted his balance on it), but he could walk.

That was good enough.

Together with the sudden rush of adrenaline, he was also hit by a wave of claustrophobia, and his fingers itched as he tried to spur Eridan forwards, closer and closer to the door.

When he got there, Eridan stopped and refused to move, and it took Dave a while to realise that he was breathing hard, panting and holding onto the troll’s arm and shoulder with a vice-like grip.

“Should wwe go back?”

“No, fuck, no, I’m ok, just… let me breathe a sec and then I’m good to go again”.

Grateful when Eridan didn’t turn them around, Dave forced himself to calm down and waited until his heart had slowed back down to a normal pace, then nodded.

“Lead the way, cap,” he stated.

Eridan’s throat rumbled a bit, and Dave sighed, hit by a wave of familiarity. For a moment, closing his eyes, he could almost believe he was back on the meteor.

Then the illusion dissipated and Eridan stepped onwards, and Dave had to concentrate on walking and not falling to his painful demise.

Much to Dave’s disappointment, the corridor outside of his room was just equally bland, with a long row of wooden panels, but his spirit lifted when he noticed a nearby window.

It was more of an open square, without anything to cover it up, unlike the one in his room, but it was a _window_ and that was enough.

Eridan noticed where Dave was looking, and nodded, then chewed on his lower lip. “You sure you wwanna sea?”

Dave almost snorted at the pun, about to make fun of the troll’s sudden obvious worry, then realised that the troll expected him to act up again, and cursed at his previous idiocy. He hadn’t thought it would hit him that hard, but the panic was gone now, was it? He was totally ok.

Cool as ice.

Fucking chilly.

“Move your fishy ass over there”.

“You’d better treat me as fuckin’ royalty or I’m droppin’ you here an leavvin’,” Eridan threatened, his throat rumbling. “Ain’t your fuckin’ servvant”.

“Yeah, sorry about that, I just–” Dave stretched forwards, trying to calm down but at the same time wanting to reach that window. “I…”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, you wwanna see,” though slightly exasperated, the troll moved again, and Dave breathed in relief.

When he got one step away from the window, Dave dropped any sort of caution and at the same time also let go of Eridan, and propelled himself forwards, grabbing the edge of the window and leaning heavily on it.

He heard Eridan curse at his side, the troll’s hands following him down to hold him up, but he ignored it He also ignored the sparkle of pain coming from his side and the strong one coming from his left foot as he put his weight on it again; the window wasn’t a good substitute to Eridan’s support, but it would have to do.

Dave looked out of the window, and his mind was wiped clean of everything, eyes wide in shock at the sight greeting him.

Everywhere he could see, there were trees. It was an endless sea of vegetation spread under him until the eye could see.

Most of them were roughly the same height, but here and there the blanket of trees was interrupted by a plant higher than the rest, few solitary giants reaching out for the sky, and as he looked down, unable to see the ground from where he was standing, Dave realised Rufioh had strategically built his hive on one of those taller trees.

Much to his surprise, not all of the trees he could see were even green; right under the window there was a group of trees in faded out blues, and he could see that one of the trees taller than the rest had the bark of a healthy maroon fading into a pale orange towards the top.

The outer walls of Rufioh’s hive were covered with what looked like ivy, but thicker and with pointy leaves, peppered here and there with small, round balls of various brown hues that Dave thought could be either berries or growing blossoms.

The hive itself wasn’t fully visible from where he was standing –just wooden walls continuing on each side of the window, and by looking down he realised there was probably another row or floor underneath, possibly disconnected from the one he was into.

He had no idea how tall the trees were, since there were walls of leaves between him and the ground, but he had a vague suspicion that they were really high.

Another thing he noticed, this time at a second glance in the distance, was that there were no mountains at all anywhere. All he could see were trees, only trees. No ground, no water, no hills or mountains.

By the daylight and the hue of the sky, Dave could infer it was late in the afternoon, and he tried to synch this idea to the sense of Time ticking inside his head. His eyes were hurting a bit due to the amount of light, but he ignored it, wanting to keep looking as long as he could.

He didn’t even notice how tightly he was clutching the edge of the window until his fingers started hurting, and even then he was unable to relax his grip, far too busy squinting at the weird, unfamiliar world in front of him to care about anything else.

He felt Eridan’s body pressed against his side, gently prodding him, and he almost protested until he realised the troll wasn’t pulling him away from the window but merely moving him to the side so that he could look out as well.

“Dunno if your useless human alien sight can see till there, but,” Eridan’s free hand pointed towards the horizon, “nature’s cheatin’ you out like this, it ain’t endless, wwe’re in a basin vvalley”.

Dave squinted hard, trying to see what Eridan was showing him, but it was still difficult.

“From the other side of the hivve you see the mountains, but this side only has trees,” Eridan continued in a bored tone. “Havven’t been up ta the edge at all, but Ruf has, says the forest turns into meadowws after that”.

Dave was still trying to process what Eridan was saying (he had a hard time picturing what a basin valley looked like) when something attracted his attention at the edge of his vision, and he zeroed on it. A mile away, right in front of him, something was rising from beneath the surface of the trees.

He watched as a long, sinuous creature rose into the air, flapping its wings incessantly. It was too far to distinguish any detail, but it was completely white, almost translucent, and the distance and the lack of points of reference made it impossible to gauge its actual size.

What he could see was that it looked like a bird, but with bat-like wings and an elongated beak not unlike that of a hummingbird.

“What–”

“Ah, that’s one of those predators that wwould eat ya wwhole,” Eridan explained, sounding almost cheerful. “Lusus,” he added when Dave didn’t seem to recognise the animal. “Or at least on Alternia it wwoulda been a lusus”.

Dave shook his head slowly, unsure how to take this new information. So of course there were animals, but he’d expected they would be Earth animals, not… not troll ones.

He’d seen Lusii in dreambubbles, but… but this was different.

This was _reality_.

This new world obviously worked differently, and it unsettled him deeply, in a way he couldn’t explain. There wasn’t anything familiar, no hope for things to get more understandable, no chance that he would wake up in his bed, or even on the meteor, that he’d found almost homey after three years straight of living on it.

At the same time he knew the new world couldn’t just cater to humanity. It had to be home for the trolls too. He just hadn’t expected to actually share a planet.

“C’mon Davve, back to ya room before Ruf comes back and skins both a us alivve”.

Nodding slowly, Dave didn’t protest when Eridan pulled him away from the window, having noticed his slightly laboured breathing.

Somehow, walking back to his bed took more energy out of Dave than he’d anticipated. His mind was still swirling with what he’d seen outside of the window, the alien view, the flying beast… even the now constant pain from his leg and side wasn’t enough to snap him out of it.

He’d always worked fine with things belonging to the game, operating with the knowledge that once everything ended, once they won, things would make sense again in a way that he could understand.

That didn’t happen.

With a soft sigh, Dave welcomed the cool, stuffy darkness of his room almost with relief. There were a lot of things he had to think about, and his short trip out had only given him more questions instead of answers.

Eridan, ever the model troll, helped him back down, and Dave let out a soft gasp when he lifted both legs onto the bed, crumbling down on its surface and feeling the ache worm its way up his chest, leaving him breathless.

He’d exhausted himself, but he didn’t regret it.

“Thanks,” he murmured, eyes finding the figure of the troll at his side, lifting up his fist for him to bump.

He should have known better –Eridan looked at him for a moment, obviously confused and with a wrinkle above his nose, before retreating from his bed.

“I don’t feel pale for you,” he stated, almost accusingly.

Dave blinked in surprise. The subject was sprung on him so suddenly he wondered for a moment if he’d somehow missed something.

“Uh, well, that’s actually good, I don’t want any of your romantic shit, man,” he replied, letting his tongue run free as usual. “Quadrants… not for me,” and not even Dave could hide the soft, bitter edge in his tone.

Eridan looked tense and on the edge, shifting from one foot to the other, and he looked confused and ready to burst –almost like Karkat would do whenever Dave pushed the right button at the right time.

It made him smirk.

“Then don’t _shoosh_ me,” the troll hissed out, throat emitting a soft series of low, annoyed clicking sounds.

“I didn’t…” Dave blinked, his smirk vanishing. “Oh, I did, did I?” he groaned softly, pressing the back of his head against the pillow. “Shit, three years around your kind haven’t taught me a single fucking useful thing about you people, but I didn’t mean to make it look weird. I don’t… look you could be the best fucking troll ever at playing pale, but I’m not interested. You’re cool, but…” he shrugged.

“D… don’t make it look like I wwas comin’ onto you!” Eridan growled, the sound low and dangerous, and Dave felt the hair on his arms rise. “I _wwasn’t,_ wwho’d wwant to be wweavvin’ pale for the likes a you?”

“Jeez, calm down, I wasn’t sayin’ anything, I was just–” no, nope. Not. “Uncool,” he muttered. “Shit, Eridan buddy, I don’t even know you, why would I be trying to put my moves on you, no, ain’t how it works, not at all. If you’re up for some cool bros being bros, then I’m in, let’s get those rhymes out and slamming them down hard, but nay, troll romance isn’t for me”.

Eridan narrowed his eyes, looking down at him with a frightening intense expression.

For a moment, they remained in silence, and Dave idly wondered what the fuck was going on through the troll’s brain. That was once again a face he couldn’t decipher, but he wasn’t sure he _wanted_ to.

Then, the troll shook himself from whatever train of thought he’d gotten lost into and backed away from the bed.

“Keep dowwn your seahorses, I’m goin’ to get ya somethin’ to drink,” Eridan muttered when Dave hastily opened his mouth, ready to spout some more reassurances over his lack of quadrant desires.

Then he left the room, and Dave blinked, relaxing again on the bed.

He had no idea what to think about the troll, but at least he hadn’t started a tantrum fit like Karkat had back when they’d met for the first time.

He idly wondered how long Rufioh would be gone, and massaged the edge of his wound with a finger, trying to calm the pain.

The room was empty, but Dave’s thoughts were loud enough to cover the silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canonically, Eridan only uses fish puns when around Feferi, but I figured that he'd be so used to them that he'd slip one if he's unsettled enough (a bit like Equius, who'd slip into his horse ones only when troubled).
> 
> He's unsettled because of the way Dave acts in general, and how suddenly someone depends on him, even if only slightly (and he doesn't have to kill lusii to hold that up).
> 
> Next chapter an unexpected visit. :3 and not so good stuff, too...


	5. Chapter 04

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fighting against writer's block one day at a time. Also, I really hope you like! <3

 

**Chapter 04**

**\---  
**

They were surrounded by the velvety, dull blanket of darkness of the outside of the meteor.

Terezi was smirking, sliding close to him only to tap his nose with her cane, retreating with a flirtatious smile, waiting for him to follow.

Dave’s legs felt weird –a bit too _slow_ , like he was walking through water– but he did his best to give chase, his heart fluttering slightly.

He didn’t quite _get_ troll romance, but she felt like an exception. She felt like someone who could fill up his days and never tire him out.

There were things of Terezi that scared him –her words, the edge of her smirk, the merciless way she played with her mock-trials, hanging the guilty and mocking the opposition– but he _liked_ her. She was honest, brutally so, and it kept him grounded, through all the lies he spun.

He blinked, and Terezi was in his arms, pressing her lips teasingly against his jaw; he could feel her smirking lazily as she let him hug her, body sharp and dangerous.

As he held her close, he wondered why it felt so wrong –why her frame felt like it should be softer, bigger. Less Terezi, more–

He stumbled forwards, looking around at the roofless meteor, moving like he was swimming through sludge.

The surface of the meteor hurt his eyes, so he turned around to leave, but the air was thick and heavy, and he could barely breathe.

“John!” he called out, and his throat hurt for some reason. He’d drank too much coffee. That made sense. Too much coffee could tear you apart. “I know it’s you, give me back my shoes!”

There was a flicker of blue at the edge of his vision and he turned around, laughing–

But it wasn’t John. And it wasn’t _blue_.

It was Gamzee, roughly kissing Terezi against the wall.

She was kissing him back.

Dave blinked, then looked away, uninterested –he’d seen them already, before. He needed to get to Karkat, because they had to play Monopoly together and…

Gamzee’s face was suddenly in front of him, staring at him with Terezi’s eyes, and then he was spinning, spinning, heavy and falling and–

Dave blinked in the dark and sneezed, awaking abruptly, shaken away from his dream, and panted into the silent room, feeling his heart race in his chest but too confused to focus on why it was beating so fast.

Something in the corner shifted, and Dave knew with absurd certainty that if he _looked_ , he would see Gamzee there.

He opened his mouth to talk, and suddenly the corners of the room slid into focus, morphing from the dark angles of his room on the meteor to the wooden room of the hive.

Heart still racing, Dave closed his eyes and took a deep breath, waiting until he’d calmed down before looking to the side, trembling fingers grabbing the bowl and drinking water from it, relieving his thirst, then he shuffled a bit, hoisting himself up into a sitting position.

His side gave him a warning, but it didn’t flare up and he breathed in relief.

With a soft sigh, he leaned to the side, observing the wall and squinting a bit; he had asked Rufioh to be moved next to one of the walls, close enough to the window that he could peer out whenever he wanted, and had spent countless moments staring at the quiet sea of trees outside during the evening hours.

Leaning forwards a bit, Dave located the line of small marks he’d carved with his nails onto the window pane, and counted them. Thirteen marks –one for each day since he’d woken up in the new universe.

Flexing his legs, Dave carefully lowered them to the floor but didn’t stand, simply relishing the feeling of cool wooden panels under his bare feet.

Thirteen days, and finally the remains of his Godtier powers had kicked in, hurrying his healing up so that the wound had turned into a scar.

It would take longer for it to heal properly, but he judged he was well on the way of full health.

He tugged the panel covering the window and slid it to the side. It was still night, the world outside of the hut covered by a velvet shade; the moon was somewhere above the roof, but its light was enough to show Dave a good view of the forest.

The nights on this new, and as of yet still unnamed, planet were brighter than on Earth, but the moon was dimmer than those shining in Alternia and Beforus’ sky; the days looked normal to Dave, but for the trolls the knowledge that they wouldn’t get burnt into a crisp for standing out in the daylight had been a huge surprise.

Due to that, the two had adopted a semi-diurnal lifestyle, adapting to the days of 28 hours by alternating bouts of six, seven hours of rest with a longer period of wake. The first day they would wake up in the late afternoon, when the sun wasn’t too bright to be annoying, and go to sleep roughly eighteen hours later. The cycle was repeated evenly, and it returned to the same starting time on the seventh day. this allowed them to still count the time in weeks.

While the trolls had been able to settle down easily, for Dave it was a bit harder, and he still woke up a bit disoriented, or fell asleep during the ‘waking period’. The two trolls had taken turns to follow his messed up pattern while he recovered, but he was slowly settling down, aligning his sleeping hours to match theirs.

As he idly observed the night view, the dream fluttered up to the surface of his conscious, and he quickly shoved it back where it belonged.

He didn’t _want_ to think about Terezi.

After their break-up, no matter how ‘okay’ he always said he was, he had gone out of his way to avoid her (he’d say ‘give her space’, but he knew which option was the truth), and she had done the same, leaving him behind to be with the juggalo troll. He _cared_ for her, she was still a _friend_ , no matter what had happened, but… he didn’t want to have to confront those feelings.

Not yet.

And still, even finding her, dealing with the awkwardness, would be _better_ than this isolation, the feeling that his friends were in danger.

He worried about her. He worried about all his friends, about K… and not knowing where _they_ _were_ only made him more anxious. He could force himself to forget when he had company, which was why he enjoyed being around Rufioh so much –the guy could talk for hours uninterrupted if allowed to– but he wasn’t with the others all the time.

His train of thoughts always ended up in the same direction, and worrying sick was a thing Dave did daily.

With a sigh, Dave concentrated on something else, driving away those thoughts –it was a good moment to try and stand up.

Rufioh had been adamant to make him rest first, and not attempt to walk until he was sure his wound had closed completely; Eridan hadn’t wanted to risk being found out after the first time, and Dave could only disobey when he was alone.

He knew it wasn’t the brightest idea, but he didn’t care –it was bad enough to be dependent on the two trolls… he didn’t want to admit his own uselessness more than this.

Smirking to himself, Dave pushed his weight forwards, holding onto the side of the bed as he finally stood up straight, legs parted to balance himself better.

His heart was pounding in his temples, wild and exhilarated, and he took a series of deep breaths to calm himself down.

“Ok, good, I’m standing, tall and proud and all that shit, a pole of steadiness, now let’s not ruin this by slipping, wouldn’t be cool, only idiots slip while standing, I’m not even walking yet c’mon, just keep it _cool_ –”

He bit down on his lower lip, blocking the muttering mid-rant. Talking to himself made him lose focus, and he had to keep quiet.

Lips moving soundlessly as he continued his rant on mute-mode, Dave flexed one leg first, putting all his weight on one foot, the one on the opposite side of the wound. No problem there, aside for the way his bones popped as he shifted. Easy.

He tried to do the same to his other leg, but while he could easily stand on both legs, his right one still couldn’t take all that much weight without trembling, tendons and muscles straining under the tension, so he quickly balanced himself evenly again.

Ok, he could make do. He was good at finding out details and pieces of information about things and work with them.

He stepped forwards with his left leg, mindful of keeping one hand on the bed as support, and everything went well.

Good.

He flexed his right leg experimentally, testing out the muscles, and the bones of his hips cracked a bit. Moving it didn’t hurt, though the talon couldn’t reach his calf (not without stretching it first to avoid cramping) but he could lift it to at least twenty degrees before it started straining.

Dave wasn’t even aware he was smiling, since he was too busy focusing on his leg and side; he felt euphoric, because this was much more progress than he’d done in a whole week, with or without the fussy presence of Rufioh, and it was enough to strengthen his determination.

Yes, he was almost healed enough to ask Rufioh to take him out for a flight… then he could get directions and see just how big the forest was, and how to orientate himself to search for his friends –for _Karkat_.

And–

He’d been focusing so hard on this rush of adrenaline that he didn’t even realise he’d let go of the bed, taking two steps towards the centre of the room on his own.

The moment all his weight was placed on his right leg, the muscles sent a spasm of pain up his side.

White, searing agony exploded in his head and robbed him of his breath.

Instantly, both his legs gave out beneath him, and he crumbled on the floor with a choked gasp, panting and pressing his forehead against the wood, eyes unseeing, waiting for the wave of pain to pass.

His lungs finally unclenched, and he took a shuddery breath, air burning as it went in, leaving him wheezing.

The floor smelled stuffy, dust settling into his lungs and making them hurt, but he was unable to move, and kept breathing shallowly, forehead pressed against the boards enough to leave marks on the skin.

Slowly, the pain receded and Dave coughed out the dust, shifting until he was on his side, head tilted to look at the ceiling tiles.

“F… fuck,” he wheezed, weak and shocked.

What was going on?

He was quite sure the wound had closed up correctly, and he had no idea why it hurt so much still.

Maybe he had to do more stretching before moving…?

“Wwhat the f–”

Eridan’s voice startled Dave out of his thoughts, and he tilted his head slightly to stare at the door, blinking softly.

“Davve, wwhat the hell happened?!”

Quickly, the troll made his way to him, kneeling at his side, and Dave’s nostrils were suddenly hit by the pungent smell of fish. He gurgled and wrinkled his nose. “Better then,” he replied, voice shaking a bit, “what’s with that smell? Shit, you _reek_ like you’ve just dismembered a whale and decided to take a nap inside its belly”.

Completely deadpan, Eridan glared down at him, swatting his shoulder slightly. “No shit,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “I wwas takin’ care of cookin’ for today”.

Dave snorted. “Where did you even get the fish?”

“There’s a glubbin’ rivver some miles down,” he replied, hands still hovering above Dave’s shoulders. “Ruf’s brought stuff before goin’ ta bed”.

Dave nodded, relaxing a bit; this was apparently the signal Eridan had been waiting for, because he tugged him up into a sitting position, then helped him stand again. Dave leaned heavily against him as the troll guided him back to the bed, and did not let go until the human had sat down again.

He remained standing in front of him, even as Dave avoided looking at him, shuffling a bit and flexing his toes.

“Wwell?” apparently, Eridan wasn’t the most patient of trolls.

“Wwell wwhat?” Dave replied, mocking the troll’s speech quirk.

Completely uncaring, Eridan grunted and rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course, because mockin’ me is a completely vvalid wway to make me leavve”.

“Worth a try,” Dave grunted, looking down at his lap. “I tried to walk, that’s all,” he finally bit out, tensing up slightly and expecting Eridan to chide him.

“Wwhat, an’ ya crampled dowwn like a wwet seasponge twwo steps in?” Eridan knew how to make himself look unimpressed, and it was enough to annoy Dave. “Maybe you shoulda done that wwith someone ‘round, huh?”

“Oh, shut up, I would see _you_ try to get some walking done with Mr ControlFreak over there,” he sighed, lifting one trembling hand to brush through his bangs. “My leg hurt and I wasn’t expecting it”.

The troll didn’t speak, but when Dave glanced at him, Eridan looked perplexed.

While they hadn’t really hit off very well at first, with Dave being quite sure Eridan was barely acknowledging his presence in the hive (for whatever reason) and the whole mishap with quadrants –fuck that shit– now the two were functioning together at an acceptable level. So, Dave was almost sure he could detect some worry on the seatroll’s face.

After all Eridan had saved his life, so…

“Wwhat hurt?”

“ _Leg_ ,” Dave repeated, frowning a bit. “The one on the side of the wound”.

“ _Wwhere_. Details, Davve, howw am I supposed ta help if you’re bein’ vvague?”

Blinking, Dave tried to think about his pain. “Uh… I wasn’t really focusing on the details, I was too busy inhaling dust”.

He reached for the bowl of water, a constant at his bedside, and drank most of it, coughing to remove all the dust from his throat.

“Wwell then, get back up,” Eridan ordered, tugging at Dave’s shoulder, expecting him to obey. “Get your lazy human ass off the floor an’ showw me”.

With a soft grunt, Dave complied, standing up and balancing himself. Even if he felt a bit tired, his leg didn’t really hurt, and the phantom pain from before felt more like a bad dream now.

Still, it took him a few seconds to let go of the bed, and then he hesitantly stepped forwards with his left leg; again, nothing happened. Then he brought forth the other leg–

He felt the same sharp pain hit him instantly, and with a yelp he pushed back, shifting all of his weight on his left leg.

“ _Shit_ –”

Eridan kneeled at his side, tugging up Dave’s shirt enough to uncover his wound, which now only needed a loose bandage; the seatroll loosened them to check on it.

“Doesn’t look like it reopened,” he commented, cool fingers tracing the ragged scar.

Dave watched him stand up again. “Wait, let me try again–” he stepped forwards once more, trying to concentrate–

He hissed out loudly this time, and his leg gave out again, but instead of falling down on the floor, like before, Dave was quickly intercepted by Eridan, who helped him stand up again.

Feeling helpless as he panted, fingers gripping tightly on Eridan’s shoulders, Dave tried to focus on the lingering throbbing. “I-it’s the back of the thigh,” he finally gritted out, throwing a thankful gaze as Eridan lowered him back on the bed.

“Get dowwn,” the troll ordered.

Dave sighed but did as he was told, laying down on the bed. Eridan was quick and precise, lifting his leg up and pressing two fingers right on the underneath of his knee. There was  no pain, and even as Eridan tried to pinpoint where it hurt, there was still no pain.

“I havve absolutely no idea wwhat the fuck is wwrong wwith you,” the troll had to admit after a bit of prodding. “Wwhy don’t you get some more rest? I need ta go back a keep wworkin’”.

“Wait!” Dave’s hand dashed out and took a hold of Eridan’s sleeve. “Fuck, no we went there already remember? Don’t fucking let me rot in here! I can help with the fish! Just… fuck, please, get me out of here, will you?

“I’m not your crutch, Davve,” Eridan groused, voice thick with disdain. “You can barely _wwalk_ ”.

Dave grunted, hand releasing the sleeve to curl up into a fist on his lap, and he looked away from the other teen.

No, the troll could just go suck his cold bulge somewhere else. He wasn’t going to beg anymore.

It wasn’t his fault he’d gotten hurt in the first place. He didn’t even want to be there with them. He wanted to _leave_.

“Fuck off then,” he growled, trying to hide the way his voice shook. “Don’t even know why I asked”.

Eridan hesitated, the coldness in his stance relaxing a bit.

He couldn’t say he understood the weird specimen of an alien; he hadn’t had much contact with humans, not even when in the bubbles, and his only knowledge was the messed up interaction with the weird guy obsessed with guns. Which had been something Eridan had despised, both for the inclusion of Sollux in the equation and the fact that nothing had mattered shit back then.

But Dave was stranded somewhere without being able to leave, and wounded, and not even allowed to move on his own.

He wasn’t there of his own volition.

Eridan himself could understand the way Dave acted, his desire to be around someone else. He’d done his fair share of clinging back then. Feferi, Karkat most of all, even Vriska. Whenever and to his own pace, to fill the silence of his hive with the familiar pings of Trollian.

He had to remind himself that being here was his own decision. Not an imposition. Not forced by anyone else. Just him.

Annoyed at himself for feeling a fraction of compassion for the human, for having humiliated him needlessly –he should have been happy, but that had stopped being enjoyable long, long ago– Eridan rubbed the bridge of his nose, shoulders sagging in defeat.

“I guess the least you could do is your fuckin’ share of the wwork,” he mumbled, sounding almost dejected. “I wwill laugh a’ you wwhen you beg me to take you back here, you useless prick”.

Dave looked up sharply at him, assessing him with a penetrant gaze, but there was something raw in his face that made Eridan look away, feeling embarrassed.

“I’m not wwaitin’ forevver,” he added grumpily, offering the human his hand.

Dave swallowed, tired and still feeling angry, then inhaled sharply. “I can leave the room on my own, fuck you very much”.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Eridan made an expectant motion with his hand. “I’m not dragging your bony self through the hivve wwhen you fall dowwn”.

“Maybe then you _should_ ”.

Feeling an intense dislike for the troll, the whole situation, and himself for his obvious life choices, Dave carefully slid out of the bed and lowered himself down on the floor, glaring at Eridan all the while.

Eridan stared down at him in disbelief, hand still stretched towards him. Dave stared back, daring him to actually do it.

So Eridan actually reached out, grabbed the neck of Dave’s shirt, and started tugging him away from the bed, mindless of Dave’s soft gasp, his body sliding on the wooden floor as he dragged him across the room easily.

Dave blinked in shock, unable to shake it off until they were actually out into the corridor –the only other familiar part of the hive he’d seen since getting there– and when it finally hit him that Eridan was basically using him to clean the floor, all his anger disappeared into a fit of strangled laughter.

“I… I can’t believe you were moppin’ up the floor with me,” Dave snorted in disbelief.

Much to his own disgruntlement, Eridan was equally amused, his lips twitching upwards in a silent chuckle, until both teen were shaking in mirth, Eridan pressed against the wall of the corridor and Dave hunched over, face covered with his arm.

“Wwill you behavve noww or should I givve the corridor a good cleanin’?” Eridan looked down, gills twitching slightly, and Dave snorted, nodding.

“I will be a model patient,” he assured, shaking his head.

He ignored Eridan’s offered hand, though, and shuffled until he could hoist himself up again. His side hurt as he moved, but other than that it didn’t reopen, which was good. He really didn’t want to go back to his bed. Dave had to push all his weight on his good leg, but he didn’t mind as long as he could stand on his own.

Eridan watched him, eyes catching the signs of pain flickering on his face and the tenseness of his muscles, but did not reach out to help.

Still, once the human was up, he tugged him closer until he had one arm around his shoulders, holding a good part of his weight.

“Ready for a three-legged race here, just watch us win the game,” Dave muttered, talking to dispel the fact that he still needed help. “There’ll better be a fancy maiden ready to give me a kiss at the finish line”.

“Sorry, Ruf’s still sleepin’ noww”.

Dave couldn’t help it –he snorted, tilting his head to the side so that he could hide his face against the curve of his shoulder.

“Cmon, bigfish, let’s get to the kitchen, giddy up!”

“Ain’t movvin’ till you ask nicely, wwriggly monkey”.

“Jesus, are you for real,” Dave composed himself, a calm exterior and a blank face. “Will you show me the way to the kitchens, m’lord?”

“Wwell, that wwill suffice, yes,” Eridan replied with a courteous nod. “This wway, sea that you don’t slip n’ fall”.

“Then it’d be all your fault, m’lord, since you’re supposed to be holding me up like a fair princess”.

Eridan let out a snort. They continued bantering all the way to the nutrition block.

***

“Good morning to you two!”

Eridan and Dave turned around, watching Rufioh stomp into the kitchen with a very satisfied face.

The troll had not been around for a good portion of the day, probably scouting ahead and doing whatever the fuck Rufioh did in his spare time, but he had a healthy flush on his cheeks and was carrying the body of a white creature on his back.

As he spotted Eridan and Dave, he threw the thing onto the floor, and it fell with a weird squelching sound, unmoving.

“Well then mates, today’s been quite surprising!” Rufioh grinned at both, then rolled the creature over with a boot. “But quite a good hunt, never felt so alive since I was, well, uh, livin’!”

Apparently his squeamish behaviour with blood only extended to trolls and humans, because the animal in front of him was very much dead and quite bloody, red still pouring out from its body and onto the wooden tiles.

Dave leaned forwards a bit, using the table as a crutch to shift closer to the thing.

It wasn’t like any animal from Earth, so it meant this was one from Alternia. Or Beforus.

“What’s that called?” he asked, circling the body and gaping at the mouth, meeting two different rows of fangs and two distinct tongues lolling out.

“Actually, I have no dam– no idea, that thing looks a bit like sweet Meulin’s Lusus, but that’s not a _Lusus_ at all. It attacked me, goin’ all growly and famished at me so I had ta take it down. Figured it’d be good flavour, get me?”

Dave glanced up, and caught Rufioh licking his lips appreciatively, still proudly beaming down at his prey. Eridan let out a loud, squeaky sound through his throat and his gills fluttered as he moved towards the animal, probably judging how to cut it into pieces.

Not as interested as the two trolls in the whole process of dismembering the animal, but still intrigued at it, Dave observed the size of the head and the fangs.

Nothing like this on Earth, but it looked majestic. New animals, he just knew Jade was going crazy somewhere…

It wasn’t all white either, the tails and the tip of the ears were dark grey–

“I also found this, figured you’d be grateful to have it back!”

Something was shoved under his nose and Dave recoiled, surprised. It took him a second to focus on what was under his nose, and when he did he made a strangled sound deep in his throat, both hands darting up to wrap around what Rufioh was giving him.

His Captchalogue Modus. With his cards.

Eridan peered from above his shoulder, raising both eyebrows in surprise. “Wwait, those still wwork evven in here?”

Not listening, Dave hurried around the table, leaning heavily on it for support, ignoring the jolts of pain from his leg, and sat at the table, trembling fingers stroking the side of his modus block.

He’d figured he would never see it again, and now…

“What kind is that even, I tried ta get something out but it didn’t let me, thought it’d be broken but I figured you’d want it anyway!” Rufioh smirked. “Found it around where we found you, fallen into a hole under one of those trees, but was like finding a treasure, gods, do I miss having treasures to hunt with my crew, they were a bit loud but good company–”

Dave grabbed one of the cards from its slot. It was orange and yellow, with a grey border. “Not broken, just encrypted,” he replied. “During our trip, uh, I stole Karkat’s encryption modus and fused it with mine. Made this shitty thing, totally not ironic but works better than my feathery self’s one, so I can’t complain… Encrypt Tag-stack”.

Eridan didn’t seem all that interested, as he was already skinning the beast in the middle of the kitchen, but Rufioh sat down in front of him, looking expectantly at Dave.

“Means the slots are stacked from longer word to shorter, to get something out you decipher the code based on the name, the number of letters composing the word, in my case, synonyms. So I rap it out”.

Rufioh scratched the base of his horn, looking perplexed. “Sounds complicated, man, isn’t it hard to use?”

“Actually it’s pretty safe, and it gets easier to use when you crack the code,” he shrugged.

He sifted through the cards, eyes brightening up at a particular one.

Rufioh leaned forwards, trying to hear what Dave was muttering, but then he was taken aback by a huge pile of metallic pieces of various dimensions flying out of the captchalogue card, clattering all over the kitchen floor, filling the space that wasn’t already covered by the partially skinned carcass.

“You’re very welcome,” Dave stated, looking quite satisfied with himself. “Now don’t let me stop you from asking what, exactly, are those apparently useless metallic pieces of shit”.

Rufioh winced automatically at his words, then straightened up his back. “Do tell bro, I’m all auricular sponge clots”.

“This,” Dave patted one of the bigger pieces, “is our portable energy convertor”.

Eridan was the first to grasp the meaning of that, and he quickly grabbed one of the pieces, staring down at it in wonder. “Means wwhat I think it means?”

“Yep,” the human looked quite smug. “We brought things from the lab with us when we left. Couldn’t leave anything without knowing what to expect, get me? Shared things between us, dismantled them so they’d fit into the cards. Won’t be having a party with a coffee maker or a washer, sorry, but yes, give me a few hours to put it all back together and we’ll have electricity, fuck those shitty torches, no more fear of burning down the hive guys!”

Eridan ripped out one of the animal’s six legs and stared up at him, nodding in approval. “Fuckin’ fantastic,” he stated, grinning. “Havve been wwantin’ to wwork on my wweapons for a swweep noww”.

Dave recaptchalogued the objects in the same card, and Rufioh helped him out of the kitchen, moving like he couldn’t even feel Dave’s weight.

Since Eridan had agreed to help Dave around the hive, he had been able to get a good look at the whole hut, and even though he couldn’t really move on his own – _yet_. He still had hope that the newfound pain in his leg would vanish, soon– he now had a good understanding of how big it was.

Rufioh had built it all with wood, since this new universe didn’t have ready factories of metal, using vines and plants and making bricks with the mud, including the rudimentary oven in the kitchen.

Dave wasn’t about to tell them yet –not until he made sure the Energy Convertor worked– but he was also the proud carrier of an electric stove. Making food would be easier now. He’d have to thank Rose next time he saw her.

 _‘ **If** I see her again,’_ his brain added. Dave bit down on his lip to prevent himself from moving down that path. He had better things to concentrate on.

The hive was all on the same level, but there were parts that were detached from the main house that one could reach by using vines to climb to them.

Similarly, while the trees surrounding the hive were taller than Dave had expected –he had been faced with a good ninety feet free fall looking down from one of the windows– Rufioh had gone out of his way to create a series of steps down the whole length of the tree he’d built the hive on, including a lift made of ropes and wooden planks and rudimentary gears.

The troll truly knew how to get by in the wild, and Dave was thankful he had decided to add those things, otherwise he would have had no way to get down from the tree, not with his wounds.

The front door opened right in front of a small porch with the lift and the ladder ropes, and on the inside there was a big empty space that led to two corridors. Dave couldn’t begin to think of the patience Rufioh must have had to cut all the wood and build all of that, even if he’d only been halfway through it by the time Eridan had appeared.

Dave’s favourite place in the hive, aside for the kitchen, was the empty room with the ‘entrance door’, because it had a comfortable, low bench near a giant window, where he had a great view of the sea of trees and also a chunk of the lower levels under the first layer of foliage, though it was still impossible to look to the ground from there.

Since he had started to explore the rest of the hive by himself, he had claimed that spot as his own, sitting in the sun and soaking in it while composing raps and sightseeing.

He was unable to really help the other two, since he couldn’t even stand on his own, but had become quite adept at weaving the vines to make sturdy ropes.

Now, though –now he had a job that he could do, and one that was actually useful. Rebuilding the Energy Convertor would take some time, but he was the only one who knew how to put all the pieces together.

Rufioh lowered him down on the bench, and Dave immediately put himself to work, feeling excitement bubbling up inside him.

Concentrating entirely on rebuilding the metallic trap, Dave didn’t even pause to drink or rest, hands fumbling with the smaller pieces of junk in his haste to finish.

Together with the convertor, his captcha-cards also contained the necessary tools to fix it, a row of oil cans and various tools that would be useful in the long run, like screwdrivers and a hammer.

Not to mention clothes and a small alchemizer, though he wasn’t sure that would even work outside of the game. He didn’t have many empty cards, so he would have to use it sparingly until he remembered the correct code to punch new cards out of it.

He was not sure what things he could alchemise, since it was one of the simpler designs, but he was hopeful he would find out soon.

Things were starting to look better.

He was shaken out of his work-induced trance by the sound of shuffling coming from outside the hive, the sound of the pulley and the makeshift lift creaking with added weight, and he looked up, confused at the sudden sound.

Rufioh’s voice, muffled by the walls, alerted Dave of the troll’s return, so he finally took a break, stretching his shoulders. For a moment he wondered who he was talking to, since Eridan was still in the house –having him leave would have alerted Dave even while he worked– then the front door was pushed open, and the troll trudged in.

Dave opened his mouth, about to call his name in greeting, then he froze when someone else shuffled inside the hive, following the Taurus and closing the door behind them.

Quite tall, though not as tall as Rufioh was, ruffled black hair and a pair of short, nubby horns poking from the top of his head, dressed with a ruddy cloak.

Dave felt like someone had just punched him in the guts, squeezing all the air from his lungs.

“K… Karkat?!”

 


	6. Chapter 05

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while already, but i think i defeated my writer's block :D

**Chapter 05**

≈~~≈

Dave was idly looking at Karkat’s fingers as the troll absently ran them down the line of his sickle, testing it after he finished sharpening it.

There weren’t many times Karkat looked so delicate with his hands, and Dave had his eyes glued to them, unable to look away.

They slid slowly across the weapon, almost delicate, a movement that was familiar to him, but unlike whenever Dave did it with his sword, there was no cut on the troll’s fingertips, no droplet of blood to show how sharp the blade was.

His fingertips looked soft, but it was all just an illusion –troll skin was sturdier than humans’ skin, and it bruised harder, not to mention it felt slightly rough to the touch. Still, it _looked_ soft. Made him wonder how many things Karkat could handle gently, other than his weapon.

Karkat was mindful in every gesture, checking the smallest details, ones that even Dave would have brushed off without care, a reminder that his life before the game had been full of uncertainty and secrecy.

Even now, that need to hide his blood colour was deeply ingrained within his conscious, so much that Karkat did it without even noticing, barely scraping the layers of his skin without bleeding.

He’d seen Karkat bleed only once since he’d met the troll. The blood had gushed down from a small cut on his arm due to Dave nicking him with his sword during a practice match, and Dave had expected the troll to panic, hide it away and shower Dave with insults.

He hadn’t.

He’d frozen, then forced himself to relax, like it didn’t matter anymore, even if for him it _did_ , carelessly wiping away the blood with a sleeve, levelling Dave with a deadpan look.

There were times Dave felt almost affronted at how easily the troll could _adapt_ to things. At least consciously.

“What are you looking at?”

Karkat’s voice cut through Dave’s thoughts, and he looked up at the other teen’s face, blinking behind his shades. “I sort of miss pizza”.

The admission took both of them by surprise. Food had not been remotely close to anything Dave had been thinking about.

“I swear I will never be able to unravel the mystery that is your thinkpan, Dave,” Karkat wrinkled his nose, one last satisfied look at his weapon before he recaptchalogued it. “What the fuck is ‘pizza’? Who the fuck invents such a silly name?”

Dave blinked, tilting his head to the side, slightly puzzled. The fact that trolls had candy canes, orange popsicles and popcorn, but not pizza, left him utterly baffled.

What was the line that made their universes different, culture-wise? Well, aside for the species part.

“That’s it, we’ve just discovered that you suck,” Dave replied, puffing his chest out a bit. “A world with no pizza is a world not worth recreating. You lose. Pack up your things and find yourself a new planet, ain’t gonna trust no species that have no pizza”.

Karkat’s disgruntled face lasted for a grand total of three seconds before his lips trembled and he quickly brought one hand to his lips, snorting quietly in it and quickly angling himself so that Dave wouldn’t see his amusement, though both knew Dave had seen it.

“You are one deep sack of bullshit,” he snorted, voice cracking in laughter.

Dave smiled cheekily. “That’s one of the reasons we’re bros,” he stated, wrapping one arm around Karkat’s shoulder and tugging him against his chest.

For a second, he felt the troll stiffen, and his heartbeat did a weird stutter; then, Karkat relaxed and elbowed him into the ribs, though not enough to hurt.

“Yes, yes,” he picked up his sickle. “Now shove it and spar with me”.

“Sounds like your plan is to kick my ass, Karkat”.

“Oh, jee, look at that, you managed to discover my secret evil plan, woe me, now I will have to guard my back against your useless retaliation–”

“…what about me bribing you into being gentle on my poor maiden self?”

“–I’m listening”.

Dave smiled again, wide and open and amused, and looked at Karkat, at his equally relaxed stance, proof that Karkat wanted him around, no more tense, no more suspicious, and thought that he was very lucky to have him as his friend.

The meteor would be less appreciable if he didn’t have some company that was happy to have him around all the time.

“Well man, I was actually thinking about throwing some pizza into the mix, you know how things work, and see from there”.

“Dave, do I have to remind you that I’ve never had this ‘pizza’, and at this point I have also started to believe this weird ‘food’ doesn’t really exist outside of your subpar thinkpan?”

“Tch, that’s why I’m offering you pizza! I mean, I sort of know how to make it, so there’s no reason for you to hesitate,” he nudged him gently with his elbow, wiggling his eyebrows. “You can’t say you’re no curious ‘bout my pizza”.

“Dave…”

“Strider pizza, c’mon…”

“Fine, you utter fool, but if I don’t find this magical pizza to be of my taste, you’ll have quite the spar session to look forwards to, I warn you now. I will not spare your bony alien ass nor your shameglobes the spanking they seem to call forth”.

“… did you just say you want to spank me, Karkat?”

“I deeply regret my word choice”.

“Thought so. Never gonna make you forget that, alien boy. Didn’t know you were so adventurous, Karkat… my, my, am I to look forward to a hell of a hot night?”

“Shove it up your waste chute… ah, _shit_ ”.

≈~~≈

Blood rushed to his head so quickly that Dave went deaf for a second. He was sure he was going to pop like a balloon, explode so he’d never have to worry about anything ever again.

Before he could think, with the whirlwind of emotions washing through him like a vertigo, he was already standing up, pushing himself to his feet, eyes glued to the troll talking with Rufioh.

Karkat was there.

Everything was going to be fine – _Karkat_ was _there_.

Stomach twisting in anticipation, skin burning and freezing at the same time, the entirety of Dave’s world vanished, focusing solely on repeating Karkat’s name in his mind like a mantra.

There were so many things he wanted to tell Karkat and they all rushed to his lips as he stretched forwards, extending one arm towards him to attract his attention, swallowing a soft sound as he took a step forwards–

Karkat turned to look at him in the exact moment Dave realised his mistake, his right leg flaring up in pain at the sudden shift of weight.

He collapsed, hitting his knees and elbows as he went down, and the sudden, dull pain echoed with his side colliding with the floor, expanding through him until he choked and felt the bitter, acid taste of bile in his mouth.

Dave swallowed it down, acrid and disgusting, hands clenched into fists as he breathed harshly through his gritted teeth; he felt pathetic, angry at himself for forgetting his wound in the heat of the moment, ashamed at the display of weakness, the fact that he’d been reduced to this in front of the person he’d wanted to see since the world had gone mad.

He cursed, the words biting their way into the hair in a hiss, and then hands gently touched his body, careful to only grip his upper arms, guiding him down until he was on his side, breathing somewhat better, right leg cramped against him, sending nerve-wracking pain up his back.

It didn’t matter to be weak in front of the two trolls, because Dave had always thought this situation was transitory –he would run away from his pain and his momentary weakness, and it would be _fine_ … but looking so pitiful, wheezing and gasping on the floor, almost tearing up, full of shame and regrets, in front of _Karkat_ –

He blinked and forced his eyes to open, tears blurring his vision.

A pair of red eyes looked down at him, surrounded by yellow sclera, and Dave felt another vertigo when he could recognise nothing familiar in the face hovering above him.

Dave suddenly felt empty.

The face looking down at him was similar to Karkat’s, but full of small things that were _not_ Karkat; the jaw was slightly more delicate, the curve of his mouth, set into a thin line, held no traces of Karkat’s heartfelt worry, and his eyes were a bit too big, too red.

As he panted and coughed, pathetically writhing on the floor, wanting nothing more than to curl in a ball and get swallowed by the ground, Dave realised with sudden clarity that this troll was _not_ Karkat. It was his dancestor.

A part of him expected Kankri to open his mouth and talk –he hadn’t known him for long, but the impression he’d gained was of a troll unable to shut up– but that did not happen.

Kankri’s hands were still holding his arms, but his eyes were unfocused as he stared down at him, a crease in his brow indicating the troll was concentrating on something.

“Are you feeling well enough to stand?” he finally asked, tone slow and even. He blinked, and his eyes seems to focus on Dave again. “I take it will be fine if we move you back to the bench”.

Dave licked his lips, exhaling loudly, then Rufioh moved to his side, kneeling until he could look down at him; Kankri moved away right in time not to be hit by his horns, but didn’t comment on it, eyes still trained on Dave’s face, unnerving him.

“Hey, gonna hoist you up, ‘s that good pal?” even as he spoke, Rufioh’s hands were already on his shoulders, pushing him up in a sitting position.

The pain was receding already, though the sudden, mindless strain still hurt, and Dave swallowed as the two trolls gently moved him up and onto the bench, Kankri’s contact lasting barely enough to make sure he was sitting before he moved back and away from him, arms curling inside his cloak.

Rufioh lingered a bit, still looking worried, and Dave gave him a grateful smile, nodding to signal him he was doing better.

“I…” his lips turned into a thin line, and he stopped himself from trying to explain his actions.

It was already too much how he’d forgotten about everything in his haste to talk to Karkat, but it wasn’t even _Karkat,_ and his thigh was hurting, and he _wasn’t amused_.

“Shit,” he muttered instead.

Rufioh’s head snapped towards Kankri, though Dave was too preoccupied to notice it, but the troll barely shifted in front of him, hands hovering close to the human’s body without actually touching it, and did not react to what he’d usually tag negatively.

The Taurus dancestor blinked, unsure on how to proceed. Kankri looked slightly offset, unlike the last time they had spoken. Rufioh wondered idly if it was simply the fact that they were both alive now, not used to eyes that were not white anymore, or if Kankri was actually _different_ , somehow.

If he had to be honest with himself, and maybe it was the only one Rufioh had been honest with for a long time, Kankri wasn’t on his top five list of favourite people to see. He wasn’t exactly fond of him, and finding him in the woods outside of his hive had been unsettling, but at the same time, there was a part of him that was happy to see him. He wondered if he knew anything about any of the others. If he’d seen them. If they were fine.

He’d have to wait a bit to ask, though.

If he didn’t start one of his usual contempt-filled speeches, too.

“I would like to inspect your wound, if you let me,” Kankri told the human, keeping his tone as calm as possible.

Dave frowned slightly, annoyed by the slow cadence, feeling like the troll was talking to him as if he was a child; the pain was making everything feel more annoying, and he just wished this not-Karkat would just leave him steam off his embarrassment on his own.

The disappointment he felt tainted his mood, painting it grey, and Dave didn’t feel like talking to anyone anymore.

“Dave, do you hear me?” again, Kankri’s politeness irked him wrong, but he had no strength to move away from him, so he warily nodded.

“Y…yes,” he cleared his throat, feeling it parched. “Suit yourself”.

Kankri nodded, warm hands slowly undoing his bandages.

Dave blinked, and the pain finally receded enough that he could relax slightly, slumping down on his seat and unclenching his fists. He noticed with a start that Rufioh wasn’t at his side anymore, but Kankri was no danger, so he just let it go.

The taller troll had probably a lot of stuff to do, and didn’t have to stick around just because Dave felt more at ease with him than Karkat’s dancestor.

Kankri’s face was studiously blank, eyes staring at his wound with a detached look, and Dave fought the urge to shift uneasily under the scrutiny; the troll didn’t seem to want to touch it, though, simply hovering his fingers a few inches from the cut, inspecting it.

The red of his pupils flickered slightly, and there was what felt to Dave like a vibration in the air, so soft he could swear he’d imagined it.

Then, Kankri straightened his back.

“Your blood circulation has been disrupted,” he stated, voice deceptively gentle.

Taken aback by the words, and still irked by being talked to like a baby, Dave grunted. “Well, doctor, don’t spare my feelings, how long do I have?”

Kankri blinked in surprise, the first show of emotion since he’d seen his face, then shook his head softly.

“You must have misunderstood,” he stated, the joke passing way over his head. “It is not deathly, it’s simply, ah,” he faltered in his speech. “Forgive me for my brutality, I didn’t mean to imply that your wound was…”

Rufioh reappeared inside Dave’s vision, with cups in his hands; he offered Dave one, and the other to Kankri. Both looked at him gratefully, and Dave relaxed marginally at seeing the troll sit down at his side; maybe they were trolls he wasn’t comfortable with, but he knew Rufioh more than Kankri, and he could trust the social butterfly more than the snotty Karkat-lookalikea.

“No matter,” he gritted his teeth back at Kankri. “What were you saying about my wound?”

“With all due respect, I am only speaking about your _blood_ , not your wound.” Kankri corrected him, chin jutting up just enough to give him the familiar superior aura from back in the dreambubbles. “I am not claiming any sort of knowledge in the art of medicine, as that would imply I was ever interested in that branch, but I was more devoted to the workings of the language and brain,” for a second it looked like he would start talking about that, then he looked down, almost deflating, and his arrogant look relaxed into a neutral one. “But I digress. I seem to have retained some sort of vague understanding of my personal aspect, which could lead to a pleasant discussion on the exact limits of the Game’s impact on our lives if you’re willing to take part into this conversation. But regarding your ‘impediment’ and the level of damage you sustained… the blood circulation surrounding your wound and leg area is flowing differently from the other parts of your body. Although I am by no means an expert in the matters of humans, and as such I am unable to be of any help on finding a cure, this means your leg will not function properly again until the correct flow of your blood has been re-established”.

Dave closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and counting to three before opening his eyes again; nope, Kankri was still in front of him, looking expectantly at him, arms crossed in front of his chest.

It wasn’t a nightmare.

“I can’t do shit about that,” he replied, feeling a weird bubble raise up from his stomach to his throat. “Nobody here’s a fucking life player”.

“Aranea, despite her disagreeable situation, would have been able to explain the subject at hand in a better way, probably including some of her personal ‘observations’ on the matter regarding aspects, but mending your disability at the present moment would require perhaps more power than it was granted to us upon exiting the game,” Kankri helpfully added, uncrossing his arms to press his hands on his knees, leaning forwards a bit. “Unless God Tiers have a bigger reserve than those of us who didn’t manage to…” he shuffled a bit, looking unsure for a moment, and in a sudden moment of clarity Rufioh, who’d been following the discussion from the side, realised he was trying to find a way to ‘tag’ his conversation for triggers.

Unfortunately for him, they were not working with message bubbles that could convey their conversation anymore.

“Wait,” Dave’s hands closed into fists. “What do you mean?”

Kankri had the decency to look apologetic. “I mean that unless someone more gifted in the ways of healing reaches you, the blood flow will not heal correctly on its own. Given the present situation, where not all of us are accounted for or live too far from each other to manage to get together in a short time span, and considering that your body will in the meantime continue healing incorrectly, you might end up unfortunately disabled for the rest of our permanence in this new universe… which might be forever, I presume”.

Dave’s fists went slack out of shock. Blood rushed to his ears once more as he stared at Kankri with wide eyes, unable to believe the troll’s words.

“I do not think that you should let this disability work against you. Maybe this place isn’t the best for your current living needs, as you are forced to keep still while rehabilitating, but it is safe enough to prevent most predators outside to reach you, as you might be unable to fend for yourself now that you can’t even stand,” Kankri continued, his voice soothing but his words sharp like a sword. “Thankfully, the presence of Rufioh here will surely be useful, as he is not one to chase away someone just because they are virtually unable to be useful with normal activities… in fact it is very magnanimous of him to–”

“Shut up,” Dave looked up at Kankri, feeling his guts twist painfully inside of him, the sensation leaving him feeling like he’d been gutted.

Kankri’s words had stabbed him right where it hurt, voicing his own insecurities that he had tried so hard to ignore until then; he had been afraid about his leg’s status, about the wound and his absent godtier-healing factor, and the fact that he had a hard time walking was a source of constant worry, and now… Kankri was calling him useless, he was voicing this fear and strengthening it, telling him that he might stay like this forever… Dave felt like he could barely _breathe_.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. He wanted to run away, escape Kankri’s merciless words, but he couldn’t even stand, let alone walk or run, and he felt _trapped_.

“Ah, Kankri, maybe you should come with me, I am sure Dave has other things to do, right mate? Yes, yes, uh, and he has to rest a bit so can we move to the other room? I haven’t been able to show you the rest of the hive yet!”

Rufioh hurriedly stood up, motioning for Kankri to follow him, away from Dave. He could recognize the way his words were positively damaging the human’s good mood, and while he had no idea how to stop Kankri when he started a tirade, he also found it hard to do so.

He might have led a group of trolls into fantastic adventures in the woods he called home, long ago, slaying creatures and having fun, but he wasn’t exactly cut for speaking up for himself –which was the reason his relationship with Horuss had been so strained, especially after entering the game and dying.

Those had been long, long sweeps spent trying to avoid him, unable to confront him about the situation, unable to face someone he’d once pitied so much and watching them become someone else.

So maybe Rufioh was a bit of a coward. Maybe he hadn’t had time to change, he had been dead for centuries. If he couldn’t speak up, the least he could do was take Kankri away. Dave was in no condition to talk, and Rufioh still wanted to know if Kankri had seen someone else aside for them anyway.

If he’d seen… Damara, maybe? Or… Horuss, even?

His insides clenched painfully at the thought of both of his ex-matesprits. He still had not allowed himself to think about the situation, simply enjoying being alone, but he couldn’t help wondering if they were fine. Where they were. If they were happy.

Rufioh shook his head and briskly walked down the corridor, grateful when Kankri followed him without protesting. At least one good thing.

***

Eridan peered from behind the corner of the corridor, staring at the closed door of the kitchen with a small pout; he could hear Rufioh talking with the annoying Karkat lookalike, their voices slightly muffled.

It took him a while to finally move from his spot.

At least it wasn’t one of the trolls he knew –he’d gotten to know those weird guys a bit while they had all been dead, but he didn’t really care for them, maybe aside for Rufioh, and even with him it was just because he was allowing Eridan to stay with him.

His intention was to get out of the hive for a while, at least until the undesired visitor left, but then his eyes zeroed on Dave, hunched over in his usual corner of the room, and he paused, unsettled for some reason.

The human was looking conflicted, to say the least. His useless blunt human nails were digging into his pants at the knee, and his shoulders were shaking slightly. It reminded him of the last time he’d seen Dave lose control of himself, back in his room.

It made something inside him throb painfully, but he kicked the feeling away ruthlessly.

He didn’t care shit about the human. He could throw himself out of the hive and into the forest, for all he cared.

And yet he lingered there, a couple steps away from the door of the hive, unable to leave, watching the way the shadows seemed to linger around the human’s frame.

He’d heard what Kankri had said to him, and of course Dave would take that badly. Anybody would, especially with the blunt, matter-of-fact way Kankri had used –tact was clearly not one of Kankri’s positive points– but it simply meant Dave was stuck there, unable to heal, even though he kept saying how he wanted to leave to find… the others. To find Karkat.

Eridan felt his lips twist into a grimace.

He missed Karkat too. Of all the trolls of his session, he was the only one he’d even want to see, if given the chance.

He still didn’t want to give it a chance.

Dave wanted to leave, so he would probably find a way nonetheless, so he shouldn’t even care about it. If he was going to leave and get himself killed by some beast in the forest, who _the_ _fuck_ cared?

Just because he was acting like a pathetic wriggler meant nothing. He was still a shitty human.

With a shrug Eridan stomped towards the exit of the hive, pompously refusing to look at Dave even as he moved past him, and once he was out he grabbed the rope ladder next to the pulley and jumped down, smoothly landing on the first step and starting his descent.

The rope swayed in the wind, and in that moment an unwanted image of Dave trying to slide down the bottom of the tree using the ladder instead of the pulley flickered in Eridan’s mind, making him stop mid-step.

He scoffed. Why would he even care?

Two more steps down, and Eridan had a good view of the distance separating the top of the tree from the first of the many leaves intermissions. It was quite high.

He cursed loudly, annoyed at himself and at Dave, then looked up and quickly retraced his steps, jumping onto the wooden boards and heading back towards the hive.

***

“It is only in my best interest to warn you of his current limits,” Kankri stated.

Rufioh had spent enough time on his own, with just the presence of Eridan to break the monotony of living alone for so long, but he had blissfully forgot just how unnerving Kankri’s presence was for him.

He fidgeted slightly, eyeing the room to find something –anything– to distract the other troll, but he was unsuccessful; even Eridan was suspiciously absent.

The younger troll had vanished somewhere, possibly to avoid Kankri, and for a moment Rufioh envied him.

“I’m not saying that, eh, that you did wrong, I mean, but you might not be using the right sort of lingo, you get me?” he scratched the base of his horn, feeling Kankri’s stare on him.

“I would never want to sound condescending when talking to someone in his situation, Rufioh, and you should know that. I am always mindful of my speech in case what I say happens to be a trigger, but there is no need to ‘sugarcoat’ the situation, especially when he has to learn to cope with his new ‘disadvantage’, and just how much he’s willing to discuss openly in case he needs comfort”. Kankri cleared his throat. “In fact maybe we should take some time to talk about his situation and what we’re going to do to keep him settled and comfortable–”

“Uh… not to say plannin’ ahead is bad or anything, not really, but… uh,” Rufioh felt that Kankri was once again missing something vital, but he couldn’t find a way to talk about it, so instead he changed subject. “Hey, you were telling me about your travels”.

Kankri blinked, surprised at the interruption, then looked over at Rufioh, almost cautious.

“Yes, indeed I was,” he started with a tone of slight apprehension. “Yes, you are right, we should concentrate on… more pressing matters. Young Dave’s situation can be addressed later on. I am sorry if I tried to impose on the situation at hand without prior thoughts, it is clearly a matter that needs some more discussions, but as for now… yes, my travels”.

Rufioh’s shoulders slumped in relief.

“I found myself alive again, somewhere in the north of this continent around six perigees ago, based on the length of the days on this planet,” Kankri started. He seemed to want to add something, but visibly refrained himself. “There was nobody else around, and the surroundings didn’t seem dangerous, so I thought it’d be safe. I assumed we’d all fallen through somehow, though only one iteration of each of us for obvious reasons. It took me a week to be able to gather enough provisions to be able to start exploring, and I’ve been on the move since then”.

Rufioh nodded. The idea of Kankri travelling around on his own was so unlike him that he almost called him a liar, but he knew Kankri would not lie about it. Still, if his post-scratch version could do it, he guessed Kankri had it in him.

“There is a mass of water on the east that seems to be either a sea or an ocean. I was unable to gather its actual size by its borders, but it is big enough that it is impossible to travel through it, unless with a proper boat that I had no time to build, nor the ability to,” Kankri shrugged to himself. “I did find someone there…” Rufioh’s heart fluttered, “but I’m sorry Rufioh, it was not Damara, nor Horuss”.

Rufioh’s tense shoulders sagged in relief, but he hastily hid it. “Oh, that’s really, uh, unfortunate! Ah mate, I thought you’d give me good news!”

Kankri’s eyes –sharp, more direct than he remembered them being– snapped on his face, but then his expression returned to one of concealed disinterest.

“It was one of the humans, the girl named Jane, together with Roxy. They travelled through the portal together, and ended up in the same place”.

Rufioh nodded. Dave had already explained how things had gone with the fight against Bec Noir and how most of the group had already travelled through the portal.

“I did find someone else while I was moving this way, but it was none from our group, either,” Kankri continued. “Feferi found her way to the seashore and it was almost a hassle to talk to her there, as I do not have an inclination towards swimming and… well, water in general,” Rufioh nodded, expecting Kankri to explain the levels of his comfort related to bodies of water, but the Cancer simply shook his head. “She seemed to expect to be able to trace down her fellow seadwellers in the surrounding areas, as they are attracted by water due to their genetic disposition, but at the time we met, she was the only one there”.

Kankri seemed to be preoccupied with something –if Rufioh was right, he was thinking about what would happen if Feferi were to meet with Meenah– but he didn’t seem to want to talk to him about it, so he didn’t ask.

He also didn’t mention that Eridan was living with him, as far from the sea as was physically possible. The troll was gone and probably didn’t want to see Kankri, so Rufioh would respect his wishes and keep quiet about him.

“You are of course aware of the incredible difficulties I encountered when I decided to climb here,” Kankri continued, eyeing him as he spoke. “This basin is almost too secluded, which will be probably a deterrent for anyone who happens to pass by. I only ended up coming this way because I’ve promised myself to explore as much of this continent as I can, but others might not be as determinate as I was. This also poses a problem with Dave, if he ever wants to leave… not that he could, his new disability, forgive me for the wording, will make it impossible for him to travel on his own or get away from here”.

“Yeah, first week I got here I explored the place and flew around. Ain’t all that hard for me to get through the forest basin and climb down the cascade, but boy, it must have taken you a while to even get inside!” Rufioh was actually rather impressed by Kankri’s sheer determination.

Kankri simply nodded, eyes focused on the window at his side, and Rufioh exhaled softly, feeling tired for no reason.

***

“Hey”.

Dave tilted his head to the side, eyes flicking up to Eridan’s face for a moment before looking down again.

“What the fuck do you want,” he muttered.

He wanted to be left to his brooding pit by himself, but no –Eridan had to come to annoy him.

“Wwell, sorry if I wwanted ta make sure you’re ok or somethin’ like that,” the troll growled, his fins fluttering in anger. “Guess I should leavve you to your pathetic wwhinin’, huh?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what you should do,” he grunted back, though there was no bite in his answer.

He was just empty, with a dull throb in his side that reminded him of his shameful fall. He really didn’t want to have someone like Eridan around at all.

He heard Eridan huff, his foot tapping on the wooden boards for a moment, but the troll didn’t move away.

Slowly, Dave peered up at him again. “Still here?”

“Wwell, obviously yes,” the troll sniffed, looking down at him in disdain. “Stand up, wwe’re movvin’ before the vverbose douche comes back”.

Dave’s lips turned into a thin line, and he looked back down at his leg in disgust, Kankri’s words still ringing in his ears.

“Didn’t you get the memo? This ship ain’t sailing”.

Eridan’s fins fluttered slightly, and he looked about to comment, but then shook his head. “Stop lookin’ like you’re about ta get culled, your wwhinin’ wwon’t get ya any special treatment”.

He felt his cheeks turn darker, as he realised that he had his own share of hypocrisy in that department, but he pushed the shame away by focusing on the human instead.

“Stop looking like you care,” Dave replied bitterly, fiddling with one of the cards of his sylladex. “Ain’t no reason for you to feel responsible about my ass, nobody fucking _cares_ about being ‘proper’. We’re shipwrecked on a fucking nasty forest full of shitty creatures that look like the inbred child of a horrorterror and fairy tale beasts –next time I’ll find out unicorns are real so I can ride one into the fucking sunset, wouldn’t that be poetic– and I’m standing around like a car without wheels, so please forget all about being nice, man, I don’t have no time for your pity”.

Eridan paled considerably –it was the second time the human accused him of feeling pale for him, both times without an ounce of truth in it– but then calmed down; the human was once again using his own version of pity, not the proper troll one. Damn language barriers.

Frankly he could understand Dave’s mood –he _had_ some kind of basic level of empathy, no matter what Feferi said– but…

“Clam up,” he narrowed his eyes down at the human, feeling annoyed at himself for not being able to leave the guy the fuck alone. “Wwhatevver, I just happen to havve enough empathy in my aquatic vvascular system to make sure someone I savved won’t end up ruinin’ his life. That wwould be upright silly. I am only bein’ civvilized”.

“How can I ruin my life if I can’t even _move_ ,” rolling his eyes, Dave eyed the troll standing in front of him. “Do you just like to listen to yourself talk all the time?”

“I wwouldn’t know, do _you_? Wwith all the mumblin’ an mutterin’ you do, I’d say you like your vvoice a lil bit _too much_ ”.

Dave was taken aback slightly but he recovered smoothly, opening his mouth to retort–

Footstep noises made both Eridan and Dave look towards the kitchen door as they heard Rufioh –and possibly Kankri– coming back.

Eridan groaned. “Shit”.

He hunched over, grabbing Dave by the back of his shirt, and hoisted him up without visible strain. Dave let out a shocked noise, almost toppling over until he landed against Eridan’s side, much like a few days back, then the troll started walking towards the front door, tugging him along.

“Wait, wait, what the fuck are you even doing man, there is no way I’m going out like this–”

“Wwhinin’ time’s up, let’s go before he gets back, I don’t wwant to listen to him bitchin’ again!”

Dave had nothing to say against that, so he straightened his back and allowed Eridan to help him limp out of the door, holding most of his weight like it was nothing.

 


	7. Chapter 06

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been busy with HSWC and then with real life stuff and never posted this, I'm so sorry I keep having slow updates. I hope you enjoy :)

**Chapter 06**

The forest outside of the hive was… imposing, to say the least.

Due to all the hype about his wound, and how he was unable to walk on his own for more than a hesitant half a step before having to sit down, Dave had never set foot out of the door of the hive before.

Yes, he had watched the forest line from the windows, peering out with a desperate thirst for freedom, but it wasn’t the same as being finally able to leave and walk around, see things on his own.

The fact was, now he wasn’t so sure about leaving, not like this. Part of him wanted to stop Eridan, worrying about so many things he was feeling dizzy just thinking about it, but there wasn’t even time to think. Eridan had walked out of the door with the confidence and gait of a stubborn ass, and Dave could do nothing but follow him.

“Hey, mind the wound,” he called out, gritting his teeth.

Dave was no stranger to anger, but the quality that was burning under his skin felt different, tense and irrational; he wanted to fuel that feeling into an outlet, but there were none, and he could only hold onto Eridan’s shoulder with a bit more strength than needed, annoyed at being manhandled like a puppet.

Eridan deposited him with minimum care next to the pulley, and Dave almost fell down, holding himself against the platform’s edge. He blinked and looked down at the trees below, the foliage hiding the true depths of the forest and how far the ground was.

The pulley, just like the outer floor of the hive, was made of wooden planks held together, but of a different kind of wood, darker in colour than the rest, and it was secured to the edge of the tree by a long rope. The rope was tied on one end, twirled twice around a particularly big wheel (that should have taken Rufioh a while to build) and disappeared down below, behind the wall of leaves.

Just like before he had no estimate of the height of the trees, but he still judged a fall would be fatal.

“Shit, we’re high up, huh,” he grunted, shuffling until he was on his knees. Most positions when sitting were fine, unless he twisted his chest around too much. “I bet we’re high enough to touch the fucking sky”.

Eridan snorted. He freed the rope and held it in his hands, then climbed onto the pulley and motioned for Dave to do the same.

Dave looked up at him, then back down at the forest underneath. Uneasy, he checked his sylladex for his sword, though not reassured by its presence; if they found something down there, he’d have to trust the troll to help him, and that left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Kankri’s words echoed inside his brain and he pushed them away.

No, he wouldn’t believe him. He _couldn’t_.

He had to believe that he would get better, because the alternative was being stuck in the hive for the rest of his life, and it meant not seeing anybody ever again, unless by some lucky chance Karkat happened to pass by.

He had no way to know how likely that could be. Probably not much.

Eridan glubbed at him, a gurgling sound that shook Dave from his thoughts. He dragged himself at Eridan’s side, sitting on the pulley and shuffling until both of his legs were safely inside its confines; Eridan tugged the rope and the platform wobbled, making Dave’s fingers dig into the wood to keep himself still, muscles tense.

There were no rails build into the pulley, and that made it seem rather… unsafe.

“Keep all your limbs inside,” Eridan stated, lips twitching into a smirk. “I don’t wwanna havve to scrape your remains off the ground”.

“Believe me, that’s not an option I’d like to see in person”.

They started moving down, and Dave wondered for the first time if this was a good idea; then he thought back at the many hours wasted in that empty room, at how he felt he was living in a cage, unable to leave, and at Kankri, and his resolve steeled.

With no other thing to concentrate on, Dave stared at the trees as Eridan lowered them through the branches; the leaves on top were as big as his palm, but progressively turned bigger and thicker the lower they went. Near the top they were a mixture of green and brown, though not the dead, dry brown of leaves on Earth, and turned rusty the farther away they were from direct sunlight.

As they broke through the first wall of leaves, Dave had to blink at the shift in light, smelling resin and dew and musk.

Some insects scurried away as the branches shook, and Dave had to remove a web and a spider that had gotten tangled in his hair; he flicked the poor animal into the foliage above them.

It was surprising that despite the barrage of leaves blocking the sunlight there was enough light to see properly, not the sort of dusk-setting he had thought he’d encounter. He guessed the trees were tall enough to filter through despite the leaves.

The descent was quiet, neither troll nor human speaking for the duration of the trip, and when they finally emerged from the last mass of leaves, Dave was finally able to see the underwood.

It looked just like any forest would, with branch pieces, roots –though twice as big as him, given the size of the trees– smaller bushes and a variety of earthy tones.

What took him by surprise, though, was that there were animals down below, and as the pulley dropped onto the ground, none of them seemed to care, aside for what looked like a squirrel that glanced up at him in alarm before resuming his careful shuffling around a root.

Most of the animals had what could be considered normal colouration on Earth, not white like the bigger creatures he’d glimpsed from the safety of the hive, and a part of Dave felt more at ease.

There were some birds fluttering from branch to branch above his head, and a doe munching some plants a few feet from them, plus what looked like a bunny peeking from a hole under a root.

“That one’s vvery good ta eat,” Eridan commented, eyeing the squirrel. “Though nothin’ beats the fish”.

Dave rolled his eyes, then hoisted himself to his feet, looking around. Eridan stepped off the pulley and walked ahead, moving through the forest at ease. The doe barely stepped to the side when he got too close, but didn’t seem to want to run.

“Are you going to make an impression of Snow White now?” Dave called out, manoeuvring himself so that he could slump against the tree, keeping his weight away from the leg and getting off the platform.

“I havve no idea wwhat you’re talkin’ about,” was the troll’s reply as he ripped a branch out of a bush, testing its strength. “There isn’t any snoww here”.

Dave was about to reply with a scathing recounting of the tale, and how Karkat had gone on a long rant about how shitty it was (he had been particularly vehement about the poisoned apple and how shitty it was that the humans hadn’t understood the potential of the Queen and Snow White’s caliginous flirting and had turned it into a failed murder instead) but just thinking about Karkat was a bit like opening a big can of worms, and that shut him instantly.

Every time he felt like it was going ok, just thinking about how he had missed his chance with Karkat was enough to put him in a foul mood, and Dave had never thought he would turn into such a lovesick teenager.

Maybe it was better for Karkat not to be around –Dave was doing his best impression of a mopey, sad little shit. He’d probably slap the back of his head and curse at him, saying that he was the only one supposed to think bad about himself, definitely not _Dave_.

Nice, they could have ‘I suck more than you’ contests. How fun.

“You’re thinkin’ a Kar again,” Eridan shoved the branch, now polished from smaller twigs and leaves, into his face, and Dave recoiled slightly before grabbing it. “I’ll have to say it’s startin’ to get annoyin’ to see the same face on ya all the time, wwhat are you even mopin’ for?”

Dave grunted, testing the strength of the branch –almost as tall as him– and slowly stepping forwards, blatantly ignoring the question.

The branch resisted the weight change, and he exhaled in relief. “Thanks,” he huffed out. “Are you going to drop me here to be mangled by some creature from hell or are you going to give me the tour of my life?”

Eridan’s fins fluttered, and he shrugged. He hadn’t thought it this far, honestly –he’d just wanted to get away from Kankri, and thought that maybe it’d do Dave some good to follow him instead of moping. At least he offered some entertainment… Rufioh sometimes was a bit too oppressive.

If only he’d stop making that face when thinking about Karkat…

The troll stopped mid-step, then twisted his head to stare at Dave. Under the shade of the trees he looked pale and thin, latched onto the branch as he wobbled forth.

“Ya wwant ta be in Kar’s quadrants,” he said, jutting his chin out. “You’re flushed for ‘im like a tool”.

Dave’s head snapped up to look at him, and Eridan noticed that his cheeks where suspiciously darker than normal; he blinked, almost surprised. He would have never thought he’d be right. The thought made him somewhat annoyed –the kind of petty annoyance he was familiar with– but he pushed it down, turning around again to look at the forest ahead of himself.

“Did you evven tell him ‘bout it?” he asked, his tone grouchy but curious.

There was silence, which was answer enough.

“Didn’t you _wwant_ to?” he asked again, prodding for more information.

“What’s up with you and all those questions anyway?” Dave knew he sounded defensive but didn’t care shit. He wasn’t really comfortable with how the conversation was going. He wasn’t ashamed of liking Karkat, not at all, but he just didn’t want to talk about it. He thought about swinging at Eridan’s head with his new best friend the Branch (pending name), but then decided not to. “What’s to do with you?”

“Oh, sorry, thought you’d wwant to talk rather than be a borin’ trout,” Eridan shrugged. “If you wwant wwe can go back a Kankri, bet he’d wwant to see you again”.

“Threats won’t work on me,” Dave replied stiffly, casting a quick glance upwards. “Why are you so interested anyway, got anything hiding up for Mr Gruffnubs?”

Eridan stiffened, shrugging his shoulders, and his throat clicked in disdain. “I don’t get wwhy I’d feel anythin’ for that assblood, Kar wwas a friend an that’s all”.

Dave leered, leaning forwards, forcing himself to a faster pace to keep up with the troll in front of him. “Such a quick, witty answer, I’m totally convinced now, completely and utterly sold to your intelligent rebuttal, man, especially with the clever way you mixed such a smart, acute insult together with calling him your friend. I’m so fooled you could sell me your religion”.

“Just ‘cause there coulda been somethin’ between us doesn’t mean there wwas, evver,” Eridan shuffled, thinking back at his awkward, juvenile attempts to drag Karkat into a quadrant –any quadrant– and found himself cringing. Dying somewhat changed his perspective on things, and so did coming back to half-life merged with an idiotic pissbloo… Sollux. There were many things wrong with that line of thought, but looking back wasn’t something he liked to do. Who’d want to be reminded of their personal failures? Certainly not Eridan.

A second… third, honestly… chance at life robbed him of all of his self-righteous rage, and Eridan felt a bit lost without it. He really wanted it back, it was better than his current line of thoughts.

Dave went silent again, so Eridan turned around; he was looking down, and he was holding the branch so tightly he could almost hear the wood crack.

He belatedly remembered that Dave didn’t want to be stuck there, and that if he’d really wanted to find Karkat, it meant he was planning to confess his flush to him, but that now, with his wound…

He opened his mouth, then his ears picked up Dave’s heavy breathing, and his shoulders sagged. He turned around fully, taking a step towards the human. “Hey–”

“No,” Dave looked up at him, eyes narrowed in anger, and the red looked even darker in the shade. “I can go on. I’m not a wimp! Just march the fuck on”.

Eridan rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “Yes, I can see that, look at you, big great human failure, you can’t evven wwalk around on your owwn an still refuse ta step down an rest”. Dave visibly flinched, his glare turning murderous, but Eridan simply shrugged it off. “If you think that strugglin’ on wwill make ya fit for runnin’ around, stop dreamin’,” he added, grimacing. “If I touch ya wwith a twwig you’re gonna fall on your ass”.

Dave’s first impulse was to scoff and say something smart and dismissive, but he felt the impulse deflate. He didn’t have much will to be verbose with Eridan, or anyone else, really.

It all felt a bit flat.

He’d clung to the belief that he would get better and go find Karkat, no matter how long it’d take, but now he just felt like a desperate fool for even thinking he’d get the good ending. It wasn’t just about Karkat, he wanted to find John, Jade, Rose, Dirk –but then what? He’d have to let them know that he couldn’t even _walk_ , and they’d have to deal with one more fucked up situation all thanks to him.

Maybe the world wasn’t as dangerous as Eridan and Rufioh made it seem like, but it could be just that the area they were living into was calmer, and that leaving it would uncover many dangers Dave wasn’t ready to face.

Even if he knew that his friends wouldn’t turn their backs to him –he knew better than to insult them like that– he would still feel like a weight on them, dragging them down.

They’d have to work for his share, and he’d just have to be useless, which was something he couldn’t bear. Bro had taught him to shoulder his own weight, to work for what he wanted and to be proud of it… what about now?

He wasn’t sure he wanted Karkat to see him like this.

“Shit,” he cursed, slumping down on the ground. “This is such bullshit, _fuck_ –”

Eridan scoffed slightly, even though he _did_ feel a bit sorry for him. “You don’t got to be mopin’ like this, at least you didn’t die or anythin’, I got sawwed in half and had my aquatic vvascular system broken,” he pouted, feeling a pang of old pain inside his chest.

Dave looked up, feeling anger swell into him again. “Geez, look at you, didn’t know I was talking to two parts of you, since you seem in one piece, I don’t know, like you actually are alive and fucking fine now, while I’m stuck being broken for the rest of my fucking life. Big stuff breaking up, do you think you deserve a medal or something?”

Eridan glared at him, feeling like he’d just been invalidated. “Don’t evven start,” he stated, his voice acquiring a whiny tone. “Fef just wwent an glubbed with Sol instead a me an nobody wwanted to vvisit me on my planet evven if I wwas lonely an had to kill all the angels alone!”

Dave blinked, shaking his head. He had only a vague inkling about who ‘Fef’ and ‘Sol’ were, and only because he’d managed his way through dreambubbles and Karkat’s speeches about his friends more than once, but he had no idea what the troll was even talking about with his ‘angels’ speech.

“Are we really having this conversation right now,” he said instead, lifting one eyebrow and tilting his head to the side. “ _Are_ we?”

The troll seemed even more affronted at that. “You shoulda get some empathy,” he sniffed.

“And you should get some reality check,” Dave replied, though without real animosity.

He really didn’t want to have what was clearly a whining contest with a troll. Or with anybody for that matter. He might be hitting rock bottom, but he still had his pride.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Dave found himself missing the Mayor. The carapace was silent, and listened to all Dave had to say, venting included, and had grown to be probably his best friend –sorry John– on the meteor. He had no idea what had happened to him after they’d left the game, if he was even still alive, though he was sure the little guy was safe and sound, building a real Can Town in the remains of Derse.

He’d grown used to venting without an answer, so having someone talk back, include their own comments to Dave’s ones, was almost unwanted. And yet…

He forced himself back on his feet, and took a deep breath. “Hey,” he started, swallowing and scratching his neck. “Not any good with serious talk here, but…” he looked up, searching Eridan’s face. “Could have been worse people stuck together, huh? Man, the situation sucks, and who knows, your life before might have sucked too, but we’re stuck _here_. Or I am. Not sure why you’re ‘round here when you could be frolicking in the fields under the sea seeking your soulmate or hunting squids or whatever, but this changes nothing. We might as well get along, you agree?”

Eridan rolled his eyes. “Wway to state the obvvious, captain,” he replied, fins fluttering. “Ain’t the one sad all the fuckin’ time here. Thought wwe wwere hittin’ it on pretty wwell,” he paused for a moment, surprised at his own admission, and opened his mouth to continue but Dave preceded him.

“But it ain’t about quadrants because wwho wwould wwant to have a human in their respectable quadrants?” he parodied Eridan’s snotty tone, a smirk on his lips.

“Yes, exactly,” Eridan sniffed. “An I don’t talk like _that_ ”.

“Sure you don’t,” Dave shook his head. “So formalities aside, where on earth… or, I guess, where on unnamed-planet are you taking me for our strictly platonic ‘let’s avoid Kankri’ date?”

Eridan’s face went through a lot of emotions easy to read, and Dave found it honestly funny, especially the wrinkled nose, ‘I ate a sour lemon’ one. At first he looked suspicious, thinking that Dave was poking fun at him –he was– then relatively offended, but looking like he wasn’t sure about that either, and finally he deemed Dave a lost cause, because he shrugged and seemed to inflate again.

“Since wwe’re here you can help wwith the food gatherin’, wwe can get some more fruits n’ stuff… and wwe can use your sylladex”.

“Sounds like we have a plan, captain,” Dave smiled at him. “Aye aye, lead the way”.

The fins fluttered slightly, and Eridan’s throat vibrated with a low glub, but he turned around and complied, and Dave shook his head, still amused.

Maybe he shouldn’t lay it down so thick about the nautical jokes, but he had the faint suspicion that Eridan had enjoyed that last one at least.

***

The hive was empty when Eridan and Dave came back, a few hours later.

Dave’s sylladex was full to the brim with food, much to his satisfaction, and Eridan had his arms full as well; their provisions included a few rabbits and one of the squirrels Eridan had seemed so fond of.

Privately, Dave wondered if he would manage to keep the bones of those, or maybe the hide, but he had no way to clean them or preserve them so he wasn’t really holding out much hope about it.

By the time they had reached the edge of the slope that led to the riverbed of one of the streams passing through the basin, they had already been carrying a lot of provisions, including a small treasure of little bird eggs, so they had decided to forego fish for the time being.

Considering the slope, and Dave’s health situation, Eridan had also been worried about the possibility of dangerous animals going there to drink, so despite his craving, they had started to head back.

It was also because Dave was already tired, and his leg shook with the strain of keeping him standing, and even the improvised crutch didn’t seem to help much, even when Eridan had taken from his free arm the fruits he had been carrying.

It was time to go back, and maybe Dave had tempted his fate by being out so long already.

By the time they reached their tree, and started climbing using the pulley, Dave had tensed up in preparation of his eventual facing Kankri again, but luckily for both the hive was empty when they got there.

Kankri was gone, and so was Rufioh –probably to accompany him and make sure nothing ate him on the way out.

“I wwouldn’t count on it,” Eridan replied when Dave voiced his thoughts out loud. “I bet no animal wwould eat him, nobody likes the taste a pretentious wwanker”.

They shared a conspiratorial smirk, then Eridan went to put the food into the kitchen.

He’d expected to see Dave asleep when he returned to him, but instead found him once again messing around with the metallic parts scattered in front of the entrance, though slightly unsteadily.

“Shouldn’t ya take a nap,” Eridan shuffled awkwardly, looking down at the stubborn ass of a human, and grunted when the other shook his head no. “You’ll feel it tomorroww,” he warned.

Dave glanced up, red eyes meeting his black ones, challenging him, and Eridan groaned.

He had the choice to press in, much like Rufioh would do, and force Dave to stop, or he could walk the fuck away and leave the human to his tinkering.

It wasn’t like he cared for the guy.

Dave looked back down, concentrating on his work. He was tired, but he was even more tired of resting and letting others do his share. He could stick around some more, show Rufioh and Eridan –and _Kankri_ – that he would never become a dead weight.

Then Eridan grabbed the back of his shirt and unceremoniously tugged him away from his pile of shit, dragging him down the corridor and to his room.

“Hey! I was–”

Eridan absently patted his head, and Dave blinked, mouth falling open in shock. “Did you just pap–”

“I’ll deny anything unless you press charges,” Eridan snorted down at him, tugging him upwards and dropping him down on his bed.

“Didn’t think you’d be channelling ‘rezi,” Dave muttered under his breath, deflating and slumping down on his bed.

Eridan frowned, looking so affronted and Dave had no idea why, exactly.

“Fuck, this place is even less fun than the meteor, and that’s saying a lot,” he grumbled instead, shuffling until he was lying down on the mattress, looking at the far too familiar ceiling. “At least there was the Mayor to make things fun. God I miss the Mayor. Best friend, no offence to John,” he lowered his voice, muttering a quick apology to his human best friend before continuing again, “had crayons at least. Well, and working legs. Rap’s a no-go, nothing to rap about here unless you want me cracking up some rhymes on your fins, man”.

There it was again, Eridan’s patented Affronted Look™. Dave was starting to find it as amusing as Karkat’s grouchy grimace.

“Just wait till I fix the machine over there, then I’ll make all sorts of fun stuff. I’ll alchemize a sharpie and you can have dibs on Rufioh’s face”.

Looking into Eridan’s definitely uninterested face, Dave privately regretted not having John around.

“Jeez, lighten up man, I knew you liked fish but I didn’t think you wanted to become one,” he muttered, and there it was again, Eridan’s anger.

At least it was better than his disinterest, even if Dave felt a little bad about all the teasing. It was his way to cope about things, but he didn’t want to lay it down too thick. He didn’t mean to insult Eridan at all.

Before Eridan could speak up, Dave put his arms behind his head and exhaled loudly. “C’mon, tell me something. Anything. An exciting tale, conk up some lies about your planet, I don’t care. just move those chewing jaws of yours and form words and talk to me. Narrate your life to my super interested ears or some shit”.

“I’m not your personal caretaker, you wwuss,” Eridan grumbled, but he seemed mollified by the chance to talk about himself. He could never refuse that. “But I gue~ss I could spare a couple minutes”.

Dave relaxed on the bed, expecting Eridan to start recounting tales of lost treasures and possibly sea monsters, and he was not disappointed, as that was exactly what he got.

If anything, Eridan was good at spinning stories, even if his part in them was always (possibly) exaggerated the slightest bit (Dave was sure that nobody could drag the dead corpse of a ghostly white whale around the sea by their hands, really), but they were entertaining enough that he didn’t even feel like complaining.

It was a different glimpse of the troll world than what he got from talking to Karkat and Terezi, possibly due to the different locations of their personal hives.

Eridan was feeling pretty great himself, because it didn’t happen often that someone actually wanted to listen to his fabulous tales, so when at one point he looked down at Dave’s face, pausing mid-rant, and found Dave with his eyes closed, he felt disappointment hit him in the guts.

“Tsk, ain’t no wway to appreciate a good story,” he grunted with a pout.

“Are you kidding, I’m hanging to your every word here,” Dave complained, opening his eyes and glaring up at him. “Perfectly able to follow your tale, so now please where’s the gore and the action you promised?”

Eridan was actually taken aback, but didn’t even feel like glaring at Dave, as it wasn’t often that someone actually listened to him talking.

“You wwant a listen to the good parts huh,” he puffed his chest out. “Got ta wait till the chase then”.

Dave snorted and lifted both hands in surrender. “Then keep goin’ man, we’ve got all day”.

***

Rufioh walked alongside Kankri through the forest, flexing his wings a bit.

Just as he had expected from his long, long experience with the other troll, the walk was just as awkward as ever, even more so with Kankri keeping quiet, which was… unexpectedly creepy from him.

Still he couldn’t find much to talk about –did they ever hit it off spontaneously before? Not while they were both dead, but… before. Rufioh could not remember it. It was hard after a while to keep track, memories overlapping and seeming just the same, but he had the feeling that no, they had never really been friends.

Did Kankri even have friends?

Did _Rufioh_?

It hadn’t mattered much before, in a way, but… things were different now.

“You, ah, you could have remained for the rest of the day at least,” Rufioh offered, in a vain attempt to break the silence.

Kankri blinked, then shook his head, polite as ever. “Unfortunately, I want to move once again and keep on travelling until I have found the others,” he replied quietly. “It might take a while, but I will find my way back here eventually. If I find any of the others, I will tell you,” he paused, looking ahead.

The forest was just the same everywhere, weird and foreign.

They were both thinking about the same thing.

“Please offer my apologizes to Dave,” Kankri finally continued, tilting his head to the side and staring at Rufioh. “I did not mean to be abrupt when accosting his current health problems. If I find a Life player, I will direct them here so they might try to help him”.

“Young lad’s a bit shaken yes,” Rufioh scratched his chin and sighed. “I don’t think he wanted to be stuck there with us like that, but can’t do much about it”.

Kankri’s lips twitched up in a weird smile, and Rufioh wondered when was the last time he’d seen him smile in the past. Perhaps never, at least not after death.

He wanted to ask –was his travelling to find someone in particular? Was Kankri trying to repent for something? Was that why he was refraining himself from pointing out ‘triggers’ like he usually would?

But Rufioh felt he wasn’t strong enough for that kind of conversation yet.

Living was complicated as fu… as hell.

“Have a safe trip lad,” he offered instead, and for a moment he could even make-pretend that things were actually fine.

That this was Beforus, that the game hadn’t messed up their lives and afterlives irrevocably, that he was still just a young troll with what felt like an entire life in front of him.

Rufioh belatedly realised that he was still that young troll, he still had a new life in front of him. It just was not on Beforus, nor on Alternia. But he was the one who had changed the most, or maybe not at all. Hard to say.

Kankri looked at him and pulled the cloak up over his head.

“Thank you,” he said. “I hope you might find enough time to chastise your other guest into coming out to at least greet me next time I am around. That showed an incredibly lack of property from them, whoever they were”.

With that, Kankri turned around and slowly started to climb out of the basin, never looking back, and Rufioh watched him go with mixed feelings until Kankri disappeared from view.

Then, he spread his wings and with a powerful start he took off in the air, quickly lifting himself up to the first level of leaves.

Much to his surprise, when he got back to his hive he found Eridan and Dave in Dave’s room, exchanging tips on how to better skin animals, and despite having a thing or two to say on the subject, Rufioh felt the need to leave and let the other two have their moment of gruesome bonding.

***

Rufioh was awoken the next cycle morning by a strong smell of decently-cooked food.

It ripped him out from his dreams and caused him to stumbled out of his block in a sleepy stupor, more following the smell than actually thinking about it, and on the way to the nutrition block he stumbled against an equally hungry and groggy Eridan.

They exchanged a sleepy stare, then peered into the block, only to find a satisfied Dave holding out a metallic pan with fried eggs on it.

Both Rufioh and Eridan zeroed instantly on the cause of the smell though –slices of meat roasting on the side of the eggs.

“Hey, ‘morning to you two,” Dave was positively beaming, and it took Rufioh a couple seconds to realise why.

The rudimental oven he had built entirely on wood had been pushed on the side, and in its place was a metallic contraption with four independent slots, one of which occupied by a pot, and the other by the pan Dave had been holding.

“Fixed the oven,” Dave continued, slightly put off by Eridan and Rufioh’s inability to act shocked by his building prowess. “Dig in, you’ll thank me later”.

It was probably the first time since waking up in the new world that Dave felt like he had actually done something good, and it was over such a simple thing even, and yet it felt good.

Cooking on a wooden oven meant they hadn’t had much chance to taste different meals, and eggs were mostly consumed boiled, not to mention meat and fish had to be roasted or cooked slowly in the ashes, depending on the day, but the lab’s oven was made of steel, it could withstand hotter temperatures without catching fire, and it showed in the quality of the food.

So they sat down together in the kitchen and ate Dave’s food cooked on the meteor’s lab portable oven, and for the first time in a long while, the mood was significantly happier for all participants.

“I can’t believe how much I miss technology,” Dave sighed, stretching lazily and watching Rufioh clean up. “I would give a lot to get a working shower again”.

“Living like we did has been a rush, honestly! Having a blast here, but I wouldn’t mind a plumbing system either,” Rufioh admitted with an easy grin. The food change did wonders to his mood too. “Even life with the Lost Weeaboos in the forest was more technologically advanced than this shi…” he paused, then frowned, then decided to trudge on, “this _shit_ here, but can’t complain, bro. Could be worse!”

Rufioh blinked, apparently still thinking that Kankri would pop up from nowhere to chastise him on his word choice, and was once again left pleasantly surprised by his newfound freedom of curse words. He smiled.

“You keep mentioning them,” Dave poked at him with a wooden fork. “Who the fuck are the ‘Lost Weeaboos’, I don’t think the term means the same for you as it does for me… something getting lost in translation possibly”.

Eridan snorted. He’d heard the ‘fantastic tales’ of Ruf’s crew, and it sort of baffled him how someone like him could end up getting crowned leader, but he guessed the world was really different back then.

Rufioh took Dave’s interest as a cue to start recounting one of his most adventurous tales, and Dave’s utter disbelief turned into amusement halfway through when Rufioh started quoting straight from ‘Troll Peter Pan’ land, only his tales were things he’d lived through, and that was… fucking amazing.

“Man, you should get that shit published, you’d rack in million boonbucks,” Dave snickered, considering the irony of a rewriting of Peter Pan with a ‘true story’ tacked on, but Rufioh took that seriously, and simply shook his head.

“Nah man, it was fun to live through it, don’t get me wrong, but who would read a book on that? Not me!”

“Psh, just don’t skim over the details of your sweet Troll Wendy and you’ll be fine, but don’t forget to give me a percentage in royalties”.

Rufioh didn’t seem to get the joke, and when Dave tried to explain, he coughed embarrassedly, looking on the side and almost knocking Eridan off his chair with his horns.

“I don’t think Damara’s really, uh, and Horuss’ definitely, not,” he busied himself with scraping invisible dirty from the metal of the oven.

“Whoa, you’re a stud,” Dave nudged him with the fork again. He wasn’t exactly a fan of soap operas or romantic movies like Karkat, but you pick up new habits around people you like. “I sniff a big plot point here”.

“No, I don’t think that has anything to do with anything… I mean,” Rufioh seemed weirdly uncomfortable with the conversation. “It’s not rad or anything, more problematic in the end, it was nice at one point… but it can get sour quickly, that kind of shit”.

Dave wasn’t sure he even wanted to know –between his own situation with Terezi, and then Karkat, and his other self’s shit with Jade, and Eridan’s veiled mentions of failed relationships, he was starting to think fate had roomed together three perfect romantic failures.

They just needed Karkat there to stare at them in disgust.

“C’mon man, you’re with bros here, you can unload some shit, let’s get the show on the road Ru–fi–oooh, I’m sure me n’ my man Eridan here can totally sympathize with you,” he prodded him again, and Rufioh moved away from his fork-range.

“Talk ‘bout yourself,” Eridan sniffed in a low voice, but was completely ignored by the other two.

Rufioh still looked incredibly awkward as he acquiesced, and his recounting of the story was clipped at most, but Dave had to admit he wasn’t lying when he said things could get sour quickly.

“No shit, Sherlock,” he said when Rufioh paused his tirade on how Damara had reacted to his actions. “You don’t do that shit, I thought you trolls had more finesse than that, but guess not even your quadrants prevent heartbreak, huh?”

The one looking on with disdain was actually Eridan, but he did not seem to be up for any snotty remark for the moment, which Dave considered a victory on his part.

Dave wasn’t exactly an expert, but even he considered cheating one of the no-nos of the Relationship Etiquette. He could understand falling out of love, but Rufioh should have dealt with the situation in a better way. Still, Dave was not one to judge.

“So? How did it end with the Horuss guy then? You miss him?” he asked instead.

That, he could understand. He was by no means the romantic type, but he did miss Karkat, and he hadn’t even confessed yet.

“Uh, it’s not like… there weren’t problems between me and Horuss,” Rufioh hesitated, not quite sure how to express himself. “After we all died he changed a lot. Started pursuing his own thing, that’s rad of him but it got weird pretty quickly, and I just don’t… feel the same for him as I did at first, ya get me?”

Dave shrugged. “Pretty convenient for you that we all got separated,” he said, keeping a blank voice. “You… sure you don’t miss him?”

Rufioh brushed one hand through his messy hair. “No. I mean, uh, maybe. Yes. No. I’m not really sure. I tried to break up with him but it never worked, and now I just don’t have to, ya get me? It’s a relief he’s not around. Can think for myself”.

Dave felt somewhat uncomfortable with Rufioh’s words, because he could recognise something of himself in the troll’s avoidant attitude, and he didn’t really like that.

At least he could say he had tackled the problems with Terezi (unlike other things he was still somewhat ashamed to think about), and even though things had been tense, Dave was at fault there just as much as she was. There were things about trolls that he didn’t really get, including having to ‘share’ with someone else, but he’d grown to be a little less close-minded after breaking up with Terezi, and thinking about what had gone wrong with her.

It was never just one person’s fault for a breakup, and he hadn’t accepted her choice not because of the juggalo troll in particular but because of his own hang-ups about relationships. Still, despite all of this, they had somehow reconciled afterwards. Things had been bumpy as fuck, and awkward, but he still hoped they would go back to being good friends if they ever found each other again.

About that, a part of him felt guilty for the way his feelings had moved from her to Karkat, but at least he had fallen for him _after_ he and ‘rezi had broken up.

It had just happened, he hadn’t expected it.

“Well, sorry man either way,” he stated honestly, patting Rufioh’s back. “Me n’ ‘rezi broke up too, things were a bit awkward but doesn’t mean it’ll stay like that forever”.

Eridan lifted one eyebrow at him, and Dave stared at him, daring him to say something about it. He wasn’t sure whether fish-boy found it weird that Terezi had picked him rather than Karkat, or if he found it weird Dave had picked Terezi (either way, Dave was aware Terezi was a peculiar troll, but that was what attracted him in the first place), but he seemed to shrug and look away so he smirked to himself.

So maybe this wasn’t exactly the kind of reward he had expected from finally beating the game, but he guessed it was the sort of reward he deserved. It wasn’t too bad, if he didn’t think about his missing friends, and at least he still had his sylladex, his sword and some (no matter how weird) company.

He could make due, and maybe things would get better soon.

Dave wasn’t much for hoping, but he’d always been good at being patient, at least.


	8. Interlude 01 - Karkat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bring you a new chapter! It is time for a fresh new pov, which means this is a chapter about Karkat. Also: as a side-project for this particular fanfic, I have decided to add art to it. So far, there's 4 pics for the first chapter only, others will be added as I draw them. Feel free to look back and see them! I hope they'll make the story more enjoyable.
> 
> The interludes will be probably only for the characters who relate to the main group. There will be a set of one-shot detailing other characters and what happened to them as this story goes on, but they will probably be added on the side, and this will be made into a series for easier cataloging purposes.

**Interlude 01**

≈~~≈

“What the fuck you mean, you need help with Can Town? I thought Terezi lived and breathed in that place? And why the fuck would you ask _me_ , of all people, to help?”

Karkat’s face was full of confusion and slight annoyance, but he wasn’t giving Dave the typical, disgusted look he used to have for him and him alone, so Dave felt he was actually on Lady Luck’s good side for once.

“Well, technically isn’t there a saying stating ‘the more the merrier’?” he scratched the back of his head, feeling self-conscious and awkward standing on Karkat’s door, not inside his room but not outside in the corridor either.

An unwanted guest of sorts, heh.

“You didn’t answer my question, Dave”.

Dave shrugged, looking everywhere but at Karkat.

Admittedly, he hadn’t thought this far ahead when he had decided to ask Karkat to join in the fun.

Dave was no saint, and the simplest way to explain it was that he felt lonely, and he knew the Mayor was a good company but he was always _silent_ , and he missed talking with other people. And then… well, Dave didn’t like seeing Karkat always alone either.

There were times he looked almost lonely, and Dave knew what that felt like.

Plus the fact that he knew why he was alone, and he knew why Terezi wasn’t with him in Can Town, and Rose had been categorical about not telling Karkat for some reason –Dave thought that was really stupid. After all, Karkat hadn’t reacted badly to Terezi choosing Dave instead of him, so why would he react badly about her filling a different quadrant shit with the Juggalo? And if someone like Dave could understand that, surely it meant something, and that something was that Rose was wrong. But she had been lapidary and in the end, surely she knew better right?– and that was slowly gnawing at his insides, making him feel really guilty.

And then… he had started to think that maybe Karkat wasn’t such a bad person to get to know, so maybe spending time with him, inviting him to play at Can Town, would be a solution to all these things.

Keep them both occupied and spend some time with someone else too, and maybe they could even learn not to get so much onto each other’s nerves.

He swallowed. “Well, I think… uh, Terezi doesn’t feel the need to have fun at Can Town anymore lately, and the Mayor’s been sad, and I don’t want him to be sad I mean –have you seen his cute little mayoral sad face. You don’t want to make the little guy sad. Happy Mayor forever. Love the guy,” he bit down on his lip to prevent himself from ranting more, and shrugged. “Point is, you’re the only one who’d be willing to give it a try. Not that you’re the last on my list. You were actually making it to the top, man. Choice VIP list. But I thought you’d enjoy fooling around. I thought you liked the Mayor”.

Karkat snorted, but seemed to relax a bit.

“Everybody loves the Mayor, you should know that,” he replied testily.

“Does that mean you’ll do it? Man, I swear it’ll be awesome,” Dave hurried on, hoping Karkat would not deny him this chance.

He wasn’t good at… well, this honesty thing. Irony was so much better to work around than being honest and awkward, even if irony somehow made others annoyed a lot. Or just people like Karkat, he guessed. Still, same thing. But this was a honest offer, and he hoped Karkat would be amenable to the chance of having fun with him for once.

With a small frown, Karkat seemed to think about it for a bit. “One condition,” he said, lifting one finger in the air.

Dave would later deny perking up at that. “Anything you want, Vantas”.

“You will not, by any means possible, rap in my presence or make one of your shitty sexual flavoured metaphors while I am there”.

Dave blinked. “Oh, well. Sure thing, I’ll hold onto them until you’re gone, though you’re missing out a lot”.

“I know what I’m missing out, and I’d miss out on it all my life if I could,” Karkat answered.

Still, there was a hint of a smile on his face –just a hint, the smallest upturn of his lips– and Dave decided that was enough for today.

They were giving this a try.

Hell fucking yes.

≈~~≈

When Karkat woke up, feeling disgruntled and annoyed and achy all over, all he could see in front of him was the sky.

It was so damn blue and bright that it hurt his eyes, and he quickly groaned and brought up one hand to cover his face, blinking repeatedly until he could manage to stand this annoying light, then he slowly removed his arm, and finally looked around.

He was laying on a flat rock, with what looked like crusted shells attached to a spot close to his eyes, and everywhere he looked he could only see sky and even more sky.

There was a strong smell of salt that was almost overpowering, and for someone who had never been close to bodies of salty water, the scent was foreign, but not unpleasant, and it was accompanied by the sound of waves crashing against rocks.

He was feeling a bit woozy, and confused, so he did not move, trying to think about where he was and why he could only see an expanse of blue all around him.

The memories of his fight against Bec Noir finally came back to him and he gasped out loud and pushed himself up in a sitting position, frantically looking everywhere to locate his friends.

He had been fighting with Dave and Jade, all three of them feeling tired and ready to collapse, but they had managed to win, and Bec Noir had reverted to its original carapace form. Then…

Dave had been hurt, he’d disappeared inside the portal and into the new world, but he’d been hurt, blood gushing from him, and Karkat had been unable to do anything other than grasp at empty air inches away from the portal where he’d disappeared.

If not for Jade’s hand grabbing his wrist, preventing him from following, he would have jumped right then and there to catch him, but Jade had wanted to make sure Jack Noir would be unable to pursue revenge further, and she couldn’t do that on her own.

She had grabbed Karkat’s shoulders, seeing how panicked he was, and had asked him to calm down. Dave was a God Tier. He wouldn’t die like that, and besides the others would be right on the other side of the portal, and they would help him.

_Jane_ was there, she’d heal him in no time.

That had calmed him down considerably, though his hands still shook as he followed Jade away from the portal.

Jade was also clearly worried, but she knew that things would be worse if Jack managed to wreck shit, and it was better to alert the carapace first.

The Mayor and Bec Blanche had been still nearby, gathering objects and resources that would be needed for them to rebuild their world, and seeing Karkat and Jade come back, when they had already parted earlier, had made them happy, though not so much after Jade explained them about Jack Noir.

The Mayor had promised he would do his best to find him and capture him. Blanche Noir, after a small hesitation, had given Jade her ring as well, returning from being Blanche back to being the Peregrine Monarch, offering a reassuring smile –she would not let Jack go unpunished, not after killing so many.

Finally free of their last obligation, Jade and Karkat had quickly made their way back towards the portal, anxious about joining again with Dave and the others to make sure he was fine.

Karkat had been determined to hug the fuck out of him the moment he went through, and then possibly punch him in the stomach, because seeing him almost gutted by Bec Noir’s sword had done bad things to his bloodpusher, and sent him to levels of panic he hadn’t thought he could reach, not since the whole fiasco with Gamzee going on a rampage, back on the lab.

Karkat had lost a chance to be with someone he pitied before, and it had not been a good feeling, because it had been his fault for not confessing earlier, seizing an opportunity that would not come again, and now it had almost happened again, but in a more definitive way, and that had terrified him.

His feelings for Dave were not those of simple friendship –even though he considered Dave one of his best friends even now– they were far more confused and messed up. He pitied him, the same sort of pity that had landed him and Terezi in a messy situation lacking the quadrants it deserved, until Karkat had been pining over her but had never gotten around to ask her to become his matesprit.

It was the sort of pity that made him want to hold Dave’s hand and kiss him, keep him at his side and listen to his ironic raps for the rest of his pathetic life. That kind of pity.

It bubbled under the surface for a long while, simmering in the background as they completed quest after quest in their shitty attempts to advance through a game that felt riddled against them at every step of the way. It bubbled there as they met the rest of the players, and managed to survive time after time, relying on each other to finally get through all the shit and to face the final enemy once and for all.

Karkat’s intentions had been to wait until they were safe and out of the game, confess when they were into the new universe, when he could offer Dave something better than the empty reassurance that they would keep each other alive until the end.

He was pretty sure Dave felt the same for him –and it was by no means an empty belief, nor was it born from Karkat reading into things too much. He had seen the way Dave acted around him, the casual touches, the glances he would send his way when he thought Karkat wasn’t looking.

Karkat was a blind fool, but there were times he could see with accurate clarity, and this was one of them.

The fact that he was almost sure his feelings were reciprocated made Karkat even warier, because he had already ruined one relationship by waiting too long but there was no other way this time, he didn’t want to grasp what was there between the two of them and then have it vanish for some reason.

He had waited, because he did not want their relationship to start on anyone’s terms but their own, so when he had seen Dave being hurt, all his careful, thought-out plans had shattered and he’d been filled with an intense need to act now, and wait no more.

Overthinking shit was his second name, really, or maybe it was Dipshit Vantas, either way he didn’t want to have to wait anymore, and now he couldn’t help counting the seconds he’d left before he could tell Dave.

He had expected to pass through the portal and arrive on the other side, where they would all meet up again, to see Dave being healed by Jane, or just… he was not sure what he had expected to see.

The new world was an incognita, really. Expect the unexpected, Rose had said once, quoting one of her human books.

Expect _anything_ , except what he was actually seeing now.

The rock he was on was standing on the edge of the sea –a vast, never-ending body of water that continued on and on forever, with nothing else in sight on that side.

The seaside was comprised of more jagged or flat rocks, and the water filtered through them until the rocks ended into grainy sand, and as Karkat looked that way, he realised that behind him there was a short beach of a dark, brown colour, and after that there were some short bushes. He couldn’t see too far in the distance that way, because the spot he was on was at the end of a steep hill, so he could only see as far as the top of the hill, but not past that.

He blinked, not really understanding what he was seeing.

Where were the others? Weren’t they waiting for him? Had something gone wrong with the portal? Or was it that they had been brought to a different place because they had been so late with getting through?

If that was it, then somewhere there was Jade, probably as lost as he was.

He stood up, grimacing when his joints protested the movement, and stretched carefully; he couldn’t shake from his mind Dave’s face as he fell through the portal, the pained, shocked and sorrowful expression as he went through, and Karkat had to physically slap himself with both hands in order to focus on the situation at hand.

Surely Dave was fine. He couldn’t think about all the shitty things that could have gone wrong, because he could not let himself lose focus. Dave was going to be fine. He would find the others and this was probably just a misunderstanding or a glitch –after all, they had created this new universe and they might have messed up with something along the way. It had happened with the humans’ universe too but it had been a good sort of messed up thing in the end.

It had given him new friends, and Dave.

He moved slowly down the flattened rock, getting the edge of his pants wet as he moved towards the sand, disrupting a colony of weirdly coloured crabs that scattered away from him as he walked towards the hill.

Even walking to the top made him pant like he’d just ran a marathon, and he paused there, sitting on the cool grass, to look around some more, now that he had a higher visual than before.

Everywhere he looked, he could see nothing but vast emptiness.

There were no signs of his friends, no sign of civility either. It was starting to get to his nerves, because while he would expect this from his own planet, Alternia was no more, and this wasn’t even Earth, so it was a bit of an incognita, but this lack of… life… aside for small animals… was worrisome.

Even the sounds, or lack of sounds, was making him antsy.

He stood up again, and tried to call Jade’s name, but he couldn’t bring himself to break this weird silence with his voice, so instead he started walking a random direction, hoping that he would find someone soon.

He didn’t even think about looking up, because it was weird already that he could walk around in what felt like daylight without burning himself to death, but he guessed that considering the humans were diurnal, this new world would work for the benefit of both their species.

Huh, it would be weird to split life between day and night. He wondered if Kanaya would enjoy that.

Past the hill, there was a landscape resembling a bit the valleys surrounding Tavros’ hive; there were meadows with short bushes, and some trees here and there –considering Karkat had never seen Earth, the mix and match of colours for the nature surrounding him were brushed off as being normal, a mix of Earth and Alternia– but the first sign that something was wrong happened not long after he decided to follow the coastline.

There was some noise coming from bushes at his left, the leaves and small buds shaking with something underneath them, and Karkat instantly set himself to a defensive position, not wanting to find himself at the mercy of who knew what.

He decaptchalogued one of his sickles, holding it in his hand and pointing the tip at the bush, and waited patiently to see what would come out.

When a white figure shuffled out of the bed of leaves, sporting a pair of twin horns mounted on a head too big for its body, Karkat let out a startled gasp, which in turn made the small fairy squeak and take notice of him.

It was… it was a lusus.

In fact, it was one of the Tinkerbull lusii that had chosen Tavros as its adoptee, probably slightly bigger than the original Tinkerbull had been, with wings bigger than its body.

The little lusus fluttered around Karkat, not really wary, and then tried to hug his head, and Karkat pushed away from it, feeling a wave of nausea hit him.

Jake had said that his island was full of lusii, so their presence in this new world was probably due to his influence on the new universe, but seeing a lusus after so long left him a very bitter taste in his mouth, and he refused to give the little thing any attention, hurrying away with a lump in his throat.

He continued walking for around an hour, stopping every now and then to sip from the flask he had captchalogued before engaging in a fight with Lord English. It took him that long to finally look up, and then he noticed immediately the fact that the number of visible planets in the sky was inferior to that of Alternia, but superior to what Dave had said was the sky of Earth.

They were on the right planet, then –a mix of their original homes.

Then why was he all alone? Where were all the others?

Feeling anxious all of sudden, he decided to ignore his previous embarrassment, and bringing both hands to his mouth he called out Jade’s name. He figured they would still be somewhere close, because even if he’d been walking for a while, he had been slow, and unless Jade was walking in the opposite direction, there was still a chance for them to meet up.

Shit, what if he was walking the other direction? What if he should have stayed put and waited for her?

Past Karkat was still a bulgesucking idiot, and Karkat took a moment to curse at himself, pretty loudly, until he felt calm enough to continue walking. There was no point in staying still for now, especially without any sort of refuge.

The weather seemed fine, although a bit breezy since he was close to the sea, but one could never be sure.

He decided to move slightly more towards hinterland, and on the way there he managed to collect a good variety of fruits that reminded him of those of his planet, and that upon tasting showed the same flavour and texture, which pleased him as he would not starve to death on his way, and that was always a plus.

The more he walked inland the more trees he saw, though not to the point of it turning into a forest –more like what a countryside would look like, with soil that looked like it would be good for growing things.

Karkat’s brain was already starting to cope with the harsh reality of the situation –the fact that he was alone, on a planet that was completely not what he had expected it to be, and that this was no reward, it was just a shitty situation and he should have expected it from the game, because the game seemed like it wanted to shit on them without mercy– and the only thing that kept him from despairing was that he refused to think about Dave.

If Karkat was here on his own, unable to find the others, then it meant Dave had ended just like that too. It meant he was probably somewhere alone, hurt and possibly dying and… he could not think about it . He pushed that thought as deep inside his own mind as it would go, and tried to forget, because it would do him no good to break down.

It would do Dave no good if Karkat gave up so soon.

There were no roads nor paths anywhere, so Karkat had no idea if he was getting lost or if he was going the right way –was there even a right way?– and after having walked for what felt like hours, he stopped, slumping on the ground and pressing his back against a tree, his head cooling into the shade, and tried to think.

A new planet, new rules, and they were out of the game, which made him wonder whether they’d still have some powers or not. And they were alone.

If he had been sent in a random place on the planet just like that, it could mean his friends – _all_ of his friends– were probably scattered around as well, and that could mean literally _anywhere_. If there were other continents, then they could be over there, or… what if they had been teleported in the middle of an ocean?

And what did that say about the planet in general? They hadn’t had much choice on what lived already inside the new universe, just like the trolls hadn’t known there would be another race living there when they had created theirs, so that meant that either there were other sentient species around, like the lusii Karkat had just seen, or there were just _them_.

And he wasn’t even sure how many of ‘them’ this implied.

This was fucked up. So fucked up.

And despite his attempts to not think about Dave, he was seriously more worried about him than he was about himself, because at least he was feeling fine, and he could walk, and protect himself if he needed to.

What if Dave…

Were the rules of the game still working now? If Dave was still a god tier, then he would be able to… it wasn’t a heroic death, was it?

He had no idea.

Every thought only served to make him feel even worse, until he was wheezing loudly, unable to stop this train of thoughts, because he had seen the person he pitied get stabbed with a sword and disappear, and now he was on the other side too and his securities had been compromised, and there was no prize, no reward, there was no reassurance that Dave would be fine, that he was even _alive_ , and–

He clenched his teeth so hard his jaw hurt, and then dug his nails into his arm until the pain helped him clear his thoughts a bit. He forced his breathing to slow down, inhaling and exhaling slowly, and after what felt like forever, he finally felt the panic recede from his mind.

Karkat did not allow himself to rest too long after that, knowing that staying put would only make him think, and if he started thinking any more he would drag himself down; he stood up shakily, ignoring his aching limbs, and looked around, feeling lost but not allowing himself any time to pause.

He chose to move Eastwards, since that direction was just as good as any other.

As far as the eye could see, there were only fields and trees and grass, but there was a stream ahead so he would stop there to fill his flask, and think about what to do next.

Staying close to a stream was always a good idea, especially considering Karkat did not know where food or water sources could be for now, and if he stuck around long enough, animals would surely come through to drink, and then he would be able to get some meat.

He moved up against the direction of the stream, walking steadily without stopping and looking around, trying to see any sign of civilization.

The surroundings didn’t change much as he continued to walk, this time slower because he was getting tired, but it was his constant looking around that alerted him of something weird, that clashed with the rest of the landscape.

A pumpkin.

There was a pumpkin resting innocently in the shade of a tall, lanky tree with weird blue leaves.

Now, Karkat had no knowledge on his own on the way of the pumpkin, but he had extensively observed Jade in her natural habitat, back when things had been less shitty but also at the same time _still_ shitty, and he knew that pumpkins did not grow like that. They had stems, they had leaves and those swirly green things surrounding them, and usually grew in a patch, or in places specifically designed to grow, well, vegetables.

They did not rest on the grass like they had been placed there for some reason.

That pumpkin was there waiting for him, and it was so obvious and so foreign and so utterly stupid and yet so fucking brilliant, that Karkat was left breathless, staring at it for a very long time, as if waiting for it to disappear from his sight.

It didn’t.

He tumbled towards the lone pumpkin, almost slipping and falling down as he hurried to the vegetable, then he did slip, falling on his knees and pushing with the soles of his feet to get back up, dirtying his pants and his hands with grass and soil, and the only thing that he could feel was a sheer, intense relief flooding every inch of his body.

His hands were trembling as he reached for the pumpkin, stroking its surface to make sure it was really there, and he felt the coarse surface and let out a strangled clicking sound. It was a normal, unassuming pumpkin, but it wasn’t growing there, it wasn’t a wild patch of pumpkin, it was just… it was just sitting there.

His bloodpusher was beating so loudly inside his thoracic cavity that he was almost sure it would explode, and Karkat swallowed thickly, closing his eyes for a moment.

He couldn’t… he couldn’t build his hopes so much and then see them destroyed, he had to calm himself. This could mean anything, there could be reasons other than Jade for the pumpkin being there, but…

He opened his eyes, and felt his entire body relax in relief.

There was a small note attached to the bottom of the pumpkin, neatly placed there to avoid it getting lost or dirty, and Karkat took it without hesitation to read what was written on it.

A tension Karkat hadn’t known to be there suddenly relaxed, and he slumped down on the ground, swallowing the lump in his throat until it was gone and he didn’t feel like crying anymore.

He’d found Jade.

Maybe the others were still lost, but he had a track to follow to find Jade. It wasn’t much, but it was enough, because it was Jade, and he wouldn’t be alone with all this shit, and she wouldn’t be alone either. They were going to be ok, as long as he could find her.

They would be able to find all the others if they were together.

In the middle of his sheer relief, he wondered how many pumpkins like this Jade had scattered around, how many similar messages she had written so that there could be a chance for him to find one, and how much she’d stretched her powers to try and teleport herself around like before.

He did not linger on her admission that her powers had lessened, because he did not want to think about it. That pit was threatening to pull him in, but he couldn’t. He had a thread of hope now and he would follow that.

He had no idea what Jade meant with ‘following the pumpkins’, but he guessed he would soon find out; he rolled the pumpkin back the way he’d found it, and finally noticed that on the other side there was a carved drawing, the same shape as Jade liked to have on the pumpkins back at home –a small Bec.

He gingerly touched it, and without any sort of sound or anything to warn him, the pumpkin went ‘ _–ify_ ’ on him, and disappeared from sight.

Karkat grunted, then looked around.

The meadow was just as empty as before, and for a moment he wondered if Jade’s methods were failing them, then he gritted his teeth and stood up. He needed to trust Jade.

He looked around, not sure what to do, and then moved away from the spot, looking around trying to see if something was different in the landscape.

After a couple minutes searching, and moving away from where the pumpkin had been, Karkat finally noticed a splotch of colour coming from a patch of tall grass at the end of the meadow, partially hidden from sight.

It was another pumpkin, smaller than the first but definitely there.

Oh, _that_ was what she meant.

Energized by the note and by having finally something to follow to find his friend, Karkat moved quickly, reaching the pumpkin and searching for the same Bec drawing, but before he could find it, he looked ahead, and as he had expected, he could see a pumpkin ahead of him, this time a bit further on than the first.

He nodded to himself, and kept moving. The chain reaction had been activated already, so all he had to do was follow the pumpkins, just as Jade had said, and he would keep going until he found her.

Despite having his full attention focused on searching for the next bright vegetable, since some of them were pretty much hidden from sight depending on where he was standing, Karkat kept a watchful eye out for dangers; some animals passed by as he continued his chase, a few nutbeasts and even a bigger Lusus, resembling a bit Sollux’s Bicyclops but with just one head, but they didn’t seem disturbed by his presence nor did they seem prone to attack him, so he let them be.

There was no need for him to eat yet, his digestive tract was squeezed together in a ball of anxious anticipation, and he was sure he wouldn’t be able to keep food down until he found Jade at least.

Karkat kept going.

***

By the time the sun in the sky started to go down, Karkat had ruthlessly marched on for miles without even noticing, or caring about the strain.

With the slowly descent of the sun though came the conclusion that the pumpkin trail was not going to end anytime soon, and Karkat’s stomach was, by then, weeping with need to be filled, and his legs were aching, to a point where all he wanted was to slump down and rest right then and there, and he couldn’t keep going anymore, not like this.

He felt bad for wanting to rest, and yet, he knew that he could not continue on, not when he could barely stand, let alone walk.

He had underestimated how long it would take him to travel on his own, because even in the game he had always been aided by those who could fly, and during the three years spent on the meteor, he had only trained, but not in the ways of stamina.

Of course, he could still outrun Dave any day, and walk the longest out of all humans and trolls combined, but even he had his limits, and this was it.

He had to stop and rest, and then he would start again.

He had moved from the serene, placid countryside into something that looked more like a steppe, with a land of dirty brown soil and short, cropped bushes, and then he had continued on, going further inside to find the beginnings of a forest, with trees that seemed to go on forever, just like the sea, green and leaves and bark in every direction, even upwards.

He wasn’t really looking forwards to go through the forest, especially since he preferred places where he could see enemies come by a good distance, but he knew he would at least be able to find food –animals, maybe berries or something he could recognise– and once he located the next pumpkin, he prepared a circle of rocks around it to find the spot again and hoped it would still be there once he got back.

Jade had been lucky that no animal seemed to find pumpkins tasty, since they had still been there by the time he got to the next one, but he couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t be feasted upon this close to a forest, which was probably full of vegetarian creatures.

The forest was less dark than he had expected, but it could be because he kept himself close to the borders, though the trees looked so tall he could not see the tips from underneath, and it made him uncomfortable. He hoped he wouldn’t have to go too deep in there.

Karkat got lucky quite quickly –the creatures living in the forest did not seem to fear him, so he managed to hunt a few of the smaller ones –a rabbit and a couple nutbeasts– for his dinner, and then retired from the forest, heading towards the pumpkin with his fresh kills.

What he wasn’t expecting was to find someone waiting for him there, a small fire already lit and a stew brewing in a pot.

Freezing in shock, he could only stare at the familiar yet unfamiliar sight of Jade stirring the soup with a wooden stick, looking perfectly normal, just like the last time he’d seen her, what felt like minutes before, and yet lacking the white ears on top of her head.

He had probably made some sort of noise, or a gasp of surprise, because she turned around, and her eyes grew wide as she saw him.

“Karkat!”

Seconds later Karkat was dropping the loot on the ground, because he was suddenly on the receiving end of an armful of Jade, who threw herself at him and wrapped both arms around his neck, squeezing it so tightly Karkat felt his windpipe close. He didn’t mind one bit.

“Shit, Jade, what the fuck happened, where were you what–” she interrupted him by squeezing him harder, and he sighed and hugged her back.

It was just good to have her here –he had to admit that he’d liked not being alone during the time in the meteor, and then afterwards it was just better to have company, and with the shitty situation they’d gotten caught into, being alone left him too much time to think.

He relaxed a bit, and let Jade go. She shuffled, then moved back towards the fire, stirring the stew and beckoning him to get closer.

“I’m glad I came back to this area again! And when I saw the rocks… I decided to wait, because it could be you but it could be someone else, and I had to know. I’m glad the pumpkin idea worked. This planet isn’t as funny to explore as LoFaF was, and I was afraid we’d been sent far from each other… at least the two of us were close!” she offered him a cup, and then filled it with some of the stew, eyeing the dead animals he had in one hand with appreciative eyes. “I managed to find some vegetables and one of those too, but it’ll be good to have some more meat to take with us if we want to search for the rest of the guys…”

Karkat sighed. “No sign of anyone? Not even…” he paused. “What about Dave?”

Jade shook her head. “Didn’t find anybody else yet. I thought I had seen Feferi at one point, but I guess it was just one of those lusus creatures”.

Karkat slumped at her side, then decaptchalogued the flask and offered her some.

“We never seem to have any luck,” he muttered, sipping the stew with a grateful series of clicking sounds. “Universe reward, hah. As fucking if”.

The food was good, and tasty, and it made his mood better instantly, calming his hunger a bit. Talking with Jade, venting a bit the injustice of this new world, that was also good. They deserved something better, but they had been cheated again. It was only right they got to rant about it.

“Gods, I _know_! It’s such bullshit! And I’ve been so worried about Dave too!” Jade curled up and chewed on the stew like it had been personally the cause of their problems. “What if he ended up on his own too? Why are we scattered everywhere?” she paused a bit, then shifted. “And I’ve felt so wrong too, my powers are all wonky and I’m not sure if it’s because of that or if it just feels wrong because I’m not used to having reduced powers. I hoped I’d use them to materialize around but it didn’t work, and I got so mad!”

Karkat chuckled a bit, unable to help himself, and Jade smiled at him.

“I’ve been checking around for a while,” she swallowed another mouthful of stew. “The past few days the weather’s been fine, but–”

“What the hell do you mean past few days? I woke up here only a few hours ago!”

Karkat and Jade stared at each other, not really understanding.

“Wait, I woke up here three days ago, around morning!” Jade punched the ground at her side, looking extremely pissed off. “You mean I’ve been here alone for three days and you found me on the first day? That’s unfair!” that made him chuckle again, and the tension around them lessened some more. “But seriously, that means something’s gone wrong. We should have ended up together at least, with a world crafted for us, I’ve made sure to make everything right after the fight, and I don’t think we messed up. So I really have no idea what happened…”

Karkat groaned and closed his eyes, clutching the cup in his hands and trying to think positive.

He didn’t want to start his mental rants on how everything was shitty and how it was probably his fault –he was pretty sure this time it had nothing to do with him coming last, since it had been Jade the last to enter through the portal, and it wouldn’t help to think about how it could have gone wrong.

With just the two of them, all that mattered now was to find Dave. Find all the others.

“Shit, shit… what if Dave is still hurt?” he grimaced, and bit down on his lip to stop himself.

Jade placed her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’s fine,” she told him, but her tone did not sound as reassuring as she’d hoped, because she was worried about him just as well.

“What if… what if he isn’t?” Karkat looked at Jade, and watched her expression shift from hesitant to vulnerable, just like he felt. “What if he’s also alone and…”

“Not good to think like that,” she stopped him, and by the waver in her voice Karkat realised she was just as worried as he was. “I can’t think that Dave isn’t fine, because… I just can’t, ok? And neither will you! We’ll look for Dave first, ok? But you can’t give up like this! He has to be somewhere, and he’s going to be fine, no matter what!”

Karkat gritted his teeth but nodded.

“And he wouldn’t want you to get so worried that you can’t even rest, so we’re going to sleep now, and tomorrow we’ll think about where to go, ok?”

Jade decaptchalogued a huge tent, setting it up on the ground while Karkat quietly gathered more wood for the fire.

They didn’t talk for a while, and when the tent was set up and the fire was ready to burn for the rest of the night, Jade sat down with him and they huddled together, feeling a bit lost and alone but glad they had at least found each other.

Around them, the night slowly grew darker and colder.

***

“We should try to head south,” Karkat suggested the following morning, after having realised that nights in this universe were slightly longer than he had expected.

“I thought we could try to explore the forest!” Jade seemed to be more cheerful this morning, probably because after three days she had finally someone at her side. Karkat was grateful he only had to go for a few hours on his own. “It looks like it’s big, and maybe if we all fell around the same place, one of the others could be there!”

“I just…” Karkat swallowed. He knew she was right, and the forest was big enough, but… “It’s too big, we’d waste a lot of time to search through there and we might miss them if they’re around. Besides, we’re not sure they’re even here. They could be anywhere, so why not pick somewhere else? The coastline looks just as good”.

Jade shrugged. “I wanted to try and see what kind of wildlife exists on this planet, and the meadows and the coastline seemed pretty barren so far. Perhaps it’s just because of the weather, or maybe the latitude, but I’ve found more animals in the forest than anywhere else so far. Did you see any while you were following my pumpkin trail?”

Karkat shrugged. “Just a couple lusii and some small rodents. There were a lot of birds in the air, but I didn’t care shit about them, I was looking at the ground”.

The reply he got was a quiet chuckle. “Then maybe we’d have more luck trying the forest. Dirk used to say he lived in the ocean, so maybe he’d be better at catching fish but if he stumbled inland he might be close to a river instead, but as for the others… Jake has lived in a jungle all his life, and I did live on a wild island too. We’re more at home here, and there’s more food around too, so maybe some of them might be here. We don’t know what messed up our arrival, if the others ended up scattered around and arriving at different points in time. Maybe some of them have been here for a while, or others haven’t arrived yet. We have to pick the best option out of all we have, and go with that”.

Karkat closed his eyes, and then relented. “Ok,” he told her.

He felt a weird lump in his chest and he hoped it was just his anxiety spiking up. He wanted to find Dave, but what were the chances of him being somewhere in the forest, as opposed to being… literally anywhere else?

“Besides, while Dave is top priority, he might not be here yet. Our best bet is to find Roxy, she might be able to help –she’s the one who packed a lot of the mechanical stuff, and she might be able to build a transmitter!”

That had Karkat perk up a bit; it was true that they had divided their things between them before reaching the last point before the battle, just to make sure they were all prepared in case anything happened, and well, something had happened, after all.

Karkat had some stuff on himself too, and so did Jade, and Dave, and all the others, but Roxy had decided to captchalogue a lot of shit nobody else thought about getting, like their spare computers and some other stuff, and considering how everything technological Karkat had on him was not working, including the silly crab communicator he’d used to chat with Dave, the only one who could make things work was Roxy.

Maybe she needed help with that, maybe there was something they could do to find each other. They just had to… well, keep searching.

With a deep sigh, he straightened his back, and allowed Jade to lead the way back into the endless forest.

 


End file.
